Kunda’s Bhai

His posturing worked. No one dared question his writ and he responded to all opposition by merely crushing it. The Election Commission of India and the State Election Commission had to finally ban his movements during elections in Pratapgarh district.

Even in that climate of no-opposition, the resurgent Thakur managed to make some enemies. Foremost among them were the Congress Legislature Party leader Pramod Tewari and of course BSP chief Mayawati. The former chief minister who threw him in jail in January 2003 under the Prevention of Terrorist Act (POTA) once famously called him ‘Kunda ka gunda’—though insiders claim the phrase was coined by a Samajwadi Party leader who later became Raja Bhaiyya’s friend!

And friends he has never lacked. UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has described him as a ‘‘source of inspiration for the future generation,’’ and UP Development Council chairman Amar Singh’s high praise is even included in Raja Bhaiyya’s rather-presumptuously titled biography, Misal (Example). In it Amar Singh praises him for upholding democratic values and Kshatriya pride.

If the need to save her government from being destabilised by BJP and BSP dissident MLAs compelled Mayawati to book Raja Bhaiyya under POTA, political expediency spurred Mulayam’s decision to withdraw POTA cases against him, his father Uday Pratap Singh and Akshay Pratap Singh alias Gopalji.

Incidentally, Uday Pratap Singh is the first Doon school alumnus to be slapped with the anti-terror Act. Raja Bhaiyya, of course, was not fortunate enough to join the elite boarding school—apparently his father refused to let him go fearing the school would make him ‘‘too soft’’. His fear now appears somewhat misplaced.

BUT long before he even became an MLA, Raja Bhaiyya’s name figured in police records in Pratapgarh and Lucknow. The last case against him was filed in the Hussainganj police station in Lucknow on November 3, 2002 by BJP MLA Ram Singh Bundela, accusing him and an independent MLA, Dhananjay Singh, of death threats. It was on the basis of this FIR that Raja Bhaiyya was arrested by the Mayawati government. Fresh cases over extortion and illicit liquor trade followed which ended in him being booked under POTA on January 23, 2003.

Soon after Raja Bhaiyya got bail from a POTA designated court in Kanpur in May 18, 2004, Mulayam made him food and civil supplies minister. The first thing Raja Bhaiyya apparently did on getting back to work was to shoot off a letter to the chief minister asking him to ‘‘fix’’ special secretary, minority welfare, Mohammad Mustafa. He was the Pratapgarh DM during Mayawati’s run and had raided Benti palace. Mulayam ignored the letter as Mustafa had found a protector in Urban Development Minister Mohd Azam Khan.

And now the Supreme Court’s decision may have cut short Raja Bhaiyya’s determination to crush all opposition and further his career. He’s putting on a brave front though. ‘‘Politics cannot be predicted, but more importantly, those who claim that my political career is over may be proved wrong,’’ he says.

It could be just big talk but coming from Raja Bhaiyya it sounds almost like a threat.