Charged in serious criminal cases, 'Raja Bhaiya' : face of Akhilesh government

Those Scared Progeny

• Who is Raja Bhaiya? The Controversial Power Figure of Kunda
• Inside Kunda: Understanding Raja Bhaiya’s Political Influence
• The Alliance of Thakur and Yadav Castes in Kunda Politics
• Raja Bhaiya’s Campaign: A Kingdom Beyond Democracy
• The Fear and Loyalty Behind Raja Bhaiya’s Popularity
• Dalit Villages, Development Funds, and the Politics of Fear

• The Nexus of Power, Crime, and Panchayat Control in Kunda

Voices of Resistance and Silence in Raja Bhaiya’s Territory

An investigative report from Kunda, Pratapgarh, exploring how independent MLA Raja Bhaiya maintains his power through caste loyalty, fear, and control of local governance....

Independent MLA and cabinet minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias 'Raja Bhaiya' is one of the most disputed figures of the Akhilesh Yadav government.

In his twenty-year political career, he has been charged in serious criminal IPCs and POTA also. Although he is contesting as an independent candidate from the Kunda constituency, the Samajwadi Party is supporting him and has not declared a candidate.

A few days ago, I reached Kunda to understand the basic reasons for the popularity of Raja Bhaiya. I walked at tea stalls, Dhabas and began a discussion over social and political issues of Kunda and state politics.

Hare Ram Mishra wants to understand how Raja Bhaiya has secured his political kingdom.

I also wished to understand the methods, tactics used by Raja Bhaiya and his supporters to win the assembly election.

I watched his election campaign closely. It was a highly attended gathering of masses and supporters. Surprisingly, all the castes were available in his election rally. They all declared themselves progeny.

When I was in Kunda, another news item caught my attention. A news was published about the clash between the BJP activists and Raja Bhaiya supporters. The news describes the dispute to the forced prevention of the campaign led by the BJP candidate in the neighbouring constituency named Babaganj.

Babaganj constituency is also the telling area of Raja Bhaiya. News described about the allegations of BJP candidate Pramod Gautam how they had beaten by Raja Bhaiya supporters during election campaign in a village under said constituency.

In Kunda, I found two types of caste, openly working for Raja Bhaiya. One was Thakur and the other was from Yadav community.

Yadav and Thakur were working together. When I asked them why they like Raja Bhaiya? They all replied that we are the 'progeny' of Raja Bhaiya. He is our king. It is our duty to work for him and help to win the election.

Actually, there was no meaning of democracy for all, I talked.

Later, I attended an election rally in the Kunda constituency. I found that there was no mention of the Akhilesh Yadav government at any stage in the rally or campaign. All was running on the name of the Raja Bhaiya only. Raja Bhaiya was appealing to vote on behalf of the good Power supply and the repair of Roads under the Kunda constituency areas.

In that rally, I got a youth named Zeeshan. He belonged to Muslim Community and the activist of Raja Bhaiya youth Brigade.

When I repeated my question to him, he replied me that he is a supporter. But why? There was no answer.

It is interesting that there was no any political discussion like development, education and social security.

Actually the rally was like a promotion program of a product. I found that all the supporters of Raja Bhaiya has no meaning of democracy and citizenship. In all way the election rally was based on Personal Packaging. The mass available in the rally understands itself a progeny. It was the nude dance of castism and masculinity.

After visiting rally, I reached in a Dalit-dominated village and started talking about the reasons of the popularity behind MLA Raja Bhaiya.

I found that generally peoples were avoiding to talk any thing over politics. They all accepted that we are the supporter of Raja Bhaiya. But as a reason they don't speak a single word. In rally, I found active participation of village heads. I was also surprised why village heads support Raja Bhaiya openly. To understand the basics of this support, I talked to a political opponent of Raja Bhaiya. He was the BSP activist.

In a Dalit-dominated village, I got a grass root BSP cadre. When I started discussion with him, he replied me everything in detail. But before beginning discussion, he requested me not to publish the name and identity of village and my self at any level.

After assuring him of my promise, I started the discussion and asked him about the popularity and massive support of village level. He told me that Raja Bhaiya has created a structure of supporters who understand itself beyond the Law. All their supporters are basically criminal and anti- democratic. People have fear to them.

He told me the basics of support in detail. He Said

“All the earning positions of district development fund captured by their supporters”.

He told me the secret of the support of village head men. In district panchayat level all seats has been captured by their criminal mindset supporters. As we know all the development fund for villages came via district panchayat level. If you will not stand with Raja Bhaiya, you will get zero fund for your village. In this case your earning will be zero. It is the basic reason to support of villages heads to Raja bhaiya. As he claimed this support is only on the basis of 'Terror' and not natural. Any person, who is against him, has no any political future in Kunda. He explained why no any political power come into existence in this area during the era of Raja Bhaiya.

He further told me that all seat has captured by their supporters in district Panchayat. According to him a nexus has been created. This nexus is based on the idea of looting. Their all activist get contracts in canal repairing, digging, cleaning and all type of small scale contracts. Clearly all the supporters are involved in looting of public development fund. He claimed that if you register any RTI regarding the works done by panchayat, they threaten you. He also claimed that their mobsters are preventing me from stopping the campaign in favour of BSP.

But, the supporters of MLA Raja Bhaiya claims everything is wrong and misinterpreted. They claim that people of the Kunda constituency loved him very much and delivered their votes in blessings.

Hare Ram Mishra, From Kunda Pratapgarh.

(The author is an independent commentator. These are his personal views)