BJP’s RS pick in Bihar has ‘chequered’ past

Another money bag in the Rajya Sabha fray, the BJP candidate from Bihar has a long criminal history. The political rivals of Gopal Narayan Singh have released a dossier in support of their claim that he headed a mafia which illegally exploited forest wealth and stone quarries in the Rohtas area of western Bihar. This has left the party leadership in a spot.

Many in the BJP were flummoxed when Singh’s name was announced by the party high command overlooking the claims of former state deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and former union minister Shahnawaz Hussain. Sushil Kumar Modi’s name was proposed by the state unit and the decision to prop up Singh clearly shows that the state and the central leaderships were not on the same page in the matter.

Meanwhile, a dossier issued by ruling Janata Dal (United) on Tuesday in Patna alleges that Singh has 28 serious criminal cases pending against him. Singh in addition to being named in several cases is known to wield tremendous financial clout as he owns a private medical college in Sasaram.

A former state unit chief Singh, who hails from Jamuhar in Rohtas, is a Rajput leader but was not a formidable political force for nearly a decade, even though he contested the last assembly poll unsuccessfully from Nabinagar in Aurangabad district. His electoral record otherwise too is not particularly inspiring. He won the Nokha assembly seat four decades ago but went on to lose eight times straight from Nabinagar (Aurangabad).

The most damning case against Singh pertains to attack on a police party by mafia members during a raid on the reserve forest of Basa in Rohtas district. The case pertains to 2012 when a police party led by local Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj had raided illegally run stone crushers in the reserve forest area. Maharaj is currently SSP Patna.

The police and state Forest department had lodged FIRs against Singh, former MLA Pradeep Joshi and 36 others charging them with illegal mining in protected forest area. They were booked under different sections of IPC, Mines and Minerals Act and other related provisions. The Forest department had also confiscated tractors, stone crushers besides other vehicles and machines during the raid.

Sources in the state BJP said that the party leadership was still to forget the humiliating defeat it suffered in the assembly polls in the state last year and wanted to snub established leaders of the state. As an alternative they decided to back the RSS-Thakur lobby candidate. Singh is known to enjoy proximity to RSS pracharaks like Saudan Singh and Rajendra Singh, who have been loaned by the Sangh to the BJP.