Uttar Pradesh Key Candidate

A six-time Independent MLA and former UP minister, Raghuraj Pratap Singh a.k.a ‘Raja Bhaiya’ was slapped with the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) during the BSP rule in 2003 and was linked with the infamous killing of Deputy Superintendent of Police Zia-ul-Haq in 2013, only to be later given a clean chit by the CBI. Born in Kolkata in a Rajput household, his father Raja Uday Pratap Singh hails from the royal Bhadri (estate) of Oudh. His grandfather Raja Bajrang Bahadur Singh was the founder vice-chancellor of Pant Nagar Agriculture University and later the second governor of Himachal Pradesh state. Known as ‘bahubali’, Raja Bhaiya was elected as an Independent MLA for the first time in 1993 from Kunda and retained the seat in 1996, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017. He has served as a minister under five different chief ministers, including Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh of Samajwadi Party, Kalyan Singh, Rajnath Singh and Ram Prakash Gupta of the Bharatiya Janata Party.