Keeping Up with UP | Dons of UP: The rise and fall of criminal clout
The rise of the nexus between criminals and politicians coincided with the beginning of the coalition-era in the state
Eighteen-year-old Arun Kumar Maurya from Kasganj, 22-year-old Lavlesh and 23-year-old Mohit aka Sunny Singh (the latter two from Bundelkhand) in West UP were small-time criminals with little to no street cred. All that changed on April 15, when the trio killed mafioso-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother, Ashraf, at point-blank range. They committed this crime without even bothering to cover their faces while the Ahmed brothers were handcuffed and in police custody.
Their act has left many befuddled. Some say the three youngsters were encouraged by the power that criminals wield in the state. After all, Atiq and Ashraf, with 101 and 50 cases of murder, assault, kidnapping, land grabbing and extortion, respectively, were dreaded gangsters and were suspected of continuing their criminal acts from behind the bars. The Central Bureau of Investigation, in fact, was even investigating them for allegedly abducting and assaulting a Lucknow- based realtor.
Atiq, born in 1962, was jailed at the age of 17 on a murder case, but grew powerful — and more well-known — once he entered politics in the 1980s. He won his first election as an independent candidate in 1989 from the Allahabad West assembly constituency. By then, his reign of terror had grown well enough to garner political clout through muscle and money power. It was commonly said of him, “While his father rode a horse cart, he rode horses with armed men. Who would dare oppose him?”
Atiq’s father hailed from Prayagraj and used to run a tonga. Atiq married Shaishta Parveen – currently on the run from the police — and had five sons. Ali and Umar are also in jail, while Asad was killed in an encounter by the UP police’s special task force in Jhansi on April 13. His younger sons are in a shelter home.
But if young killers thought their notoriety would help them go down the same route as the Ahmed brothers, they would be disappointed, as the era of criminals calling the shots in the political arena seems to have waned with the return of stable majority governments in the state.
On April 18, the state government released a list of most wanted criminals. In a list of 60 odd mafia men, only six had a political background — one sitting MLC, four former MLAs and one former MP. A few decades ago, it was a very different scenario.
An unholy nexus
The rise of the nexus between criminals and politicians coincided with the beginning of the coalition-era in the state: between 1991 and 2007, UP saw four assembly elections and 10 chief ministers besides four spells of President’s rule. As the majority mark remained elusive for all the main political parties, criminals from different castes and community affiliations entered the mix, exhibiting loyalty to the party in power.
Famously, Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya helped both Kalyan Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, to form their jumbo size governments in 1998 and 2003 respectively. He mobilised the support of independent candidates and turned politicians from parties like Congress and BSP.
The political value of don-turned-politicians grew as all parties welcomed them. Like Atiq, a majority of them like Hari Shanker Tiwari, Raghuraj Pratap Singh, Mukhtar Ansari, Vijay Mishra won their seats as independents but later, a few joined parties too. Atiq Ahmad, for instance, joined SP for the second time in 2003 (his first stint was from 1993 to 1996), and after he was thrown out by Akhilesh Yadav in 2008, joined Apna Dal and later All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen.
These dons manipulated the support of MLAs with lure of lucre or at gunpoint, broke parties and in the process secured tickets, not only for themselves but their henchmen too, who won elections and became ministers.
In a document prepared for the Organised Crime and Control of its Financial Activities Bill in the late 1990s, the state government named Mukhtar Ansari, Munna Bajrangi, Atiq Ahmad, Om Prakash Srivastava 'Bablu', Brijesh Singh and Abhay Singh. The document noted that most of these gangs were involved in kidnapping for ransom and large-scale extortion, and were directly or indirectly involved in the bidding of lucrative contracts of railways, public works, forest, excise, mining and lottery. They were also actively involved in politics. The bill was made into an act, but was later abolished.
Trendsetters, and other instances
Way back in the mid 1980s, two independent candidates, Hari Shankar Tiwari and Virendra Pratap Shahi walked into the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha straight from jail. They had won their seats in East UP by a comfortable margin, with tacit support of the Congress. Tiwari was lodged in the Agra jail while Shahi was in Fatehgarh jail on charges of attempt to murder and extortion — both jails were hundreds of kilometres from their electoral arena in Maharajganj.
Shahi’s political career was cut short abruptly after he was gunned down on account of a criminal rivalry in the 1990s, but Tiwari remained on a winning spree and became a minister in all governments headed by Mulayam, Kalyan, Mayawati, Rajnath Singh and Ram Prakash Gupta between 1997-2007.
The two belonged to two powerful castes – Brahmins and Thakurs – that dominated the electoral politics of the state till Mayawati, Kalyan Singh and Mulayam Singh ensured greater political power to the Other Backward Classes in the 1990s.
Old timers may recall 1997, when, amid much hype, Bahujan Samajwadi Party’s Mayawati had relented to transfer power to Kalyan Singh. The BSP and BJP had worked out a unique formula of rotating governments every six months and Mayawati, after enjoying her first six months in power, had refused to hand over the baton to Singh, the CM-in-waiting. After 20 days of handing over power, she withdrew support from the government. The BJP however, formed the government, after MLAs from both the Congress and the BSP broke away to join the party.
In the swearing-in ceremony, not only did dreaded gangster Hari Shanker Tiwari touch the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s feet before taking the oath of office and secrecy, but absconder Raghuraj Pratap Singh was even escorted to the podium while the then governor graced the stage.
Following Mayawati’s departure, Kalyan Singh turned to Raja Bhaiya, whom he nicknamed, Kunda ka Goonda (Kunda referred to his village) to help break the BSP and the Congress by fear or favour. Kalyan Singh rewarded him with a ministerial berth.
However, Mayawati never forgave him. When she became the CM again in 2002, she sent Raja Bhaiya to jail under the stringent POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act). When her government collapsed in 2003 and Mulayam Singh Yadav became the CM, his first order was to release Raja Bhaiya and his father from jail. The BJP, too, wanted the release of Raja Bhaiya. The POTA charges were revoked and Raja Bhaiya became a cabinet minister in the newly-formed SP government.
In his order, Mulayam Singh Yadav wrote, “Mayawati became the chief minister of the state in June 2002. Some MLAs withdrew support to her government in October 2002 and under the leadership of Raja Bhaiya submitted a letter of withdrawal to governor Vishnukant Shastri. The chief minister had then announced that she would send her political rivals to jail. Only for this reason, Raja Bhaiya and his father were falsely implicated in a POTA case by fabricating recovery of an AK-47 rifle, three magazines of AK-56 and 36 cartridges from his mansion on January 25, 2003. It would not be out of place here to point out that Raja Bhaiya was already behind bars under the Gangsters Act. POTA (section 3 and 4) was slapped on him after this incident.”
The Kalyan Singh government in 1998 and the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in 2003 eventually were jumbo-sized as other party leaders joined them on the promise of a berth — 93 and 97 ministers respectively — but relying on criminals was the price they paid for not achieving it electorally.
Self-styled
Many dons were self-styled Robin Hoods and grew their clout following a similar trajectory: bullying or befriending cops, distributing ‘shagun’ , living in huge bungalows with armed protection but enjoying the support of caste members, building a reign of terror and settling personal/family disputes. Their money often flowed from lucrative contracts. In the era of political instability, they became backroom boys, mobilising support to prop up governments.
Akhilesh Singh, the late don from Rae Bareli used to give ‘shagun’ to the poor in his constituency. The Congress tried its best to defeat the five-time MLA in the Gandhis’ stronghold but failed.
While Mukhtar Ansari and the slain Atiq Ahmad bore the brunt in the Yogi Adityanath regime, Raghuraj Pratap Singh and his father were hounded by Mayawati.
I remember meeting Kishore Kumar Bind before the assembly election in 2002. Bind, a poor labourer said he couldn’t vote against Mukhtar Ansari, don-turned-politician whose writ used to run large in four eastern UP districts of Ghazipur, Varanasi, Mau and Azamgarh. Bind had said he did not fear Ansari, but was personally obliged to him.
“A local dabang had taken ₹12,000 from me, promising me a job. As he failed to get me work, I pleaded with him to return my money as I had borrowed from a private money lender. The district administration failed to help me, and the police refused to even register my First Information Report. I then knocked on Ansari’s doors and he got my money back.”
Today, Mukhtar and his son Abbas Ansari are in jail, while his wife Afsha Ansari and his other Umar, suspected to be involved in a land-grabbing case, are on the run.
From her perch in Lucknow, HT’s resident editor Sunita Aron highlights important issues related to Uttar Pradesh
Eighteen-year-old Arun Kumar Maurya from Kasganj, 22-year-old Lavlesh and 23-year-old Mohit aka Sunny Singh (the latter two from Bundelkhand) in West UP were small-time criminals with little to no street cred. All that changed on April 15, when the trio killed mafioso-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother, Ashraf, at point-blank range. They committed this crime without even bothering to cover their faces while the Ahmed brothers were handcuffed and in police custody.
Their act has left many befuddled. Some say the three youngsters were encouraged by the power that criminals wield in the state. After all, Atiq and Ashraf, with 101 and 50 cases of murder, assault, kidnapping, land grabbing and extortion, respectively, were dreaded gangsters and were suspected of continuing their criminal acts from behind the bars. The Central Bureau of Investigation, in fact, was even investigating them for allegedly abducting and assaulting a Lucknow- based realtor.
Atiq, born in 1962, was jailed at the age of 17 on a murder case, but grew powerful — and more well-known — once he entered politics in the 1980s. He won his first election as an independent candidate in 1989 from the Allahabad West assembly constituency. By then, his reign of terror had grown well enough to garner political clout through muscle and money power. It was commonly said of him, “While his father rode a horse cart, he rode horses with armed men. Who would dare oppose him?”
{{/usCountry}}Atiq, born in 1962, was jailed at the age of 17 on a murder case, but grew powerful — and more well-known — once he entered politics in the 1980s. He won his first election as an independent candidate in 1989 from the Allahabad West assembly constituency. By then, his reign of terror had grown well enough to garner political clout through muscle and money power. It was commonly said of him, “While his father rode a horse cart, he rode horses with armed men. Who would dare oppose him?”
{{/usCountry}}Atiq’s father hailed from Prayagraj and used to run a tonga. Atiq married Shaishta Parveen – currently on the run from the police — and had five sons. Ali and Umar are also in jail, while Asad was killed in an encounter by the UP police’s special task force in Jhansi on April 13. His younger sons are in a shelter home.
{{/usCountry}}Atiq’s father hailed from Prayagraj and used to run a tonga. Atiq married Shaishta Parveen – currently on the run from the police — and had five sons. Ali and Umar are also in jail, while Asad was killed in an encounter by the UP police’s special task force in Jhansi on April 13. His younger sons are in a shelter home.
{{/usCountry}}But if young killers thought their notoriety would help them go down the same route as the Ahmed brothers, they would be disappointed, as the era of criminals calling the shots in the political arena seems to have waned with the return of stable majority governments in the state.
On April 18, the state government released a list of most wanted criminals. In a list of 60 odd mafia men, only six had a political background — one sitting MLC, four former MLAs and one former MP. A few decades ago, it was a very different scenario.
An unholy nexus
The rise of the nexus between criminals and politicians coincided with the beginning of the coalition-era in the state: between 1991 and 2007, UP saw four assembly elections and 10 chief ministers besides four spells of President’s rule. As the majority mark remained elusive for all the main political parties, criminals from different castes and community affiliations entered the mix, exhibiting loyalty to the party in power.
Famously, Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya helped both Kalyan Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, to form their jumbo size governments in 1998 and 2003 respectively. He mobilised the support of independent candidates and turned politicians from parties like Congress and BSP.
The political value of don-turned-politicians grew as all parties welcomed them. Like Atiq, a majority of them like Hari Shanker Tiwari, Raghuraj Pratap Singh, Mukhtar Ansari, Vijay Mishra won their seats as independents but later, a few joined parties too. Atiq Ahmad, for instance, joined SP for the second time in 2003 (his first stint was from 1993 to 1996), and after he was thrown out by Akhilesh Yadav in 2008, joined Apna Dal and later All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen.
These dons manipulated the support of MLAs with lure of lucre or at gunpoint, broke parties and in the process secured tickets, not only for themselves but their henchmen too, who won elections and became ministers.
In a document prepared for the Organised Crime and Control of its Financial Activities Bill in the late 1990s, the state government named Mukhtar Ansari, Munna Bajrangi, Atiq Ahmad, Om Prakash Srivastava 'Bablu', Brijesh Singh and Abhay Singh. The document noted that most of these gangs were involved in kidnapping for ransom and large-scale extortion, and were directly or indirectly involved in the bidding of lucrative contracts of railways, public works, forest, excise, mining and lottery. They were also actively involved in politics. The bill was made into an act, but was later abolished.
Trendsetters, and other instances
Way back in the mid 1980s, two independent candidates, Hari Shankar Tiwari and Virendra Pratap Shahi walked into the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha straight from jail. They had won their seats in East UP by a comfortable margin, with tacit support of the Congress. Tiwari was lodged in the Agra jail while Shahi was in Fatehgarh jail on charges of attempt to murder and extortion — both jails were hundreds of kilometres from their electoral arena in Maharajganj.
Shahi’s political career was cut short abruptly after he was gunned down on account of a criminal rivalry in the 1990s, but Tiwari remained on a winning spree and became a minister in all governments headed by Mulayam, Kalyan, Mayawati, Rajnath Singh and Ram Prakash Gupta between 1997-2007.
The two belonged to two powerful castes – Brahmins and Thakurs – that dominated the electoral politics of the state till Mayawati, Kalyan Singh and Mulayam Singh ensured greater political power to the Other Backward Classes in the 1990s.
Old timers may recall 1997, when, amid much hype, Bahujan Samajwadi Party’s Mayawati had relented to transfer power to Kalyan Singh. The BSP and BJP had worked out a unique formula of rotating governments every six months and Mayawati, after enjoying her first six months in power, had refused to hand over the baton to Singh, the CM-in-waiting. After 20 days of handing over power, she withdrew support from the government. The BJP however, formed the government, after MLAs from both the Congress and the BSP broke away to join the party.
In the swearing-in ceremony, not only did dreaded gangster Hari Shanker Tiwari touch the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s feet before taking the oath of office and secrecy, but absconder Raghuraj Pratap Singh was even escorted to the podium while the then governor graced the stage.
Following Mayawati’s departure, Kalyan Singh turned to Raja Bhaiya, whom he nicknamed, Kunda ka Goonda (Kunda referred to his village) to help break the BSP and the Congress by fear or favour. Kalyan Singh rewarded him with a ministerial berth.
However, Mayawati never forgave him. When she became the CM again in 2002, she sent Raja Bhaiya to jail under the stringent POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act). When her government collapsed in 2003 and Mulayam Singh Yadav became the CM, his first order was to release Raja Bhaiya and his father from jail. The BJP, too, wanted the release of Raja Bhaiya. The POTA charges were revoked and Raja Bhaiya became a cabinet minister in the newly-formed SP government.
In his order, Mulayam Singh Yadav wrote, “Mayawati became the chief minister of the state in June 2002. Some MLAs withdrew support to her government in October 2002 and under the leadership of Raja Bhaiya submitted a letter of withdrawal to governor Vishnukant Shastri. The chief minister had then announced that she would send her political rivals to jail. Only for this reason, Raja Bhaiya and his father were falsely implicated in a POTA case by fabricating recovery of an AK-47 rifle, three magazines of AK-56 and 36 cartridges from his mansion on January 25, 2003. It would not be out of place here to point out that Raja Bhaiya was already behind bars under the Gangsters Act. POTA (section 3 and 4) was slapped on him after this incident.”
The Kalyan Singh government in 1998 and the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in 2003 eventually were jumbo-sized as other party leaders joined them on the promise of a berth — 93 and 97 ministers respectively — but relying on criminals was the price they paid for not achieving it electorally.
Self-styled
Many dons were self-styled Robin Hoods and grew their clout following a similar trajectory: bullying or befriending cops, distributing ‘shagun’ , living in huge bungalows with armed protection but enjoying the support of caste members, building a reign of terror and settling personal/family disputes. Their money often flowed from lucrative contracts. In the era of political instability, they became backroom boys, mobilising support to prop up governments.
Akhilesh Singh, the late don from Rae Bareli used to give ‘shagun’ to the poor in his constituency. The Congress tried its best to defeat the five-time MLA in the Gandhis’ stronghold but failed.
While Mukhtar Ansari and the slain Atiq Ahmad bore the brunt in the Yogi Adityanath regime, Raghuraj Pratap Singh and his father were hounded by Mayawati.
I remember meeting Kishore Kumar Bind before the assembly election in 2002. Bind, a poor labourer said he couldn’t vote against Mukhtar Ansari, don-turned-politician whose writ used to run large in four eastern UP districts of Ghazipur, Varanasi, Mau and Azamgarh. Bind had said he did not fear Ansari, but was personally obliged to him.
“A local dabang had taken ₹12,000 from me, promising me a job. As he failed to get me work, I pleaded with him to return my money as I had borrowed from a private money lender. The district administration failed to help me, and the police refused to even register my First Information Report. I then knocked on Ansari’s doors and he got my money back.”
Today, Mukhtar and his son Abbas Ansari are in jail, while his wife Afsha Ansari and his other Umar, suspected to be involved in a land-grabbing case, are on the run.
From her perch in Lucknow, HT’s resident editor Sunita Aron highlights important issues related to Uttar Pradesh
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