Who is Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh? (2024)

Lucknow,UPDATED: Jun 17, 2023 12:57 IST

For all the dust that he has kicked up outside his home turf, there is not a whisper of it in Gonda, some 100 km from state capital Lucknow. There is no telling if it’s out of fear or veneration. But there is no denying 57-year-old Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s influence around these parts. That influence comes not just from his election to the Lok Sabha six times from Gonda, Balrampur and Kaiserganj. It’s the clout he exerts via the 54 educational institutions he owns or is associated with. They dot both sides of a roughly 100-km stretch of the Ayodhya-Gonda highway that connects four districts in Uttar Pradesh—Gonda, Balrampur, Bahraich and Shravasti—and boast of 80,000 students and 3,500 teachers.

In Nawabganj, which is about 45 km from Gonda town, Singh not only owns the colleges but also has a hotel, a shooting range and a wrestling academy. It is this vast network that serves as Singh’s poll machinery, independent of his party, the BJP. His relatives too are partners in his business.

A wrestler since his school days, Singh had been organising wrestling events in Gonda since the start of his political career. “Singh organised junior and national championships under his watch multiple times,” reveals a close aide. “Before mat wrestling came into vogue, he used to organise dangals at his own expense. He also organises Khel Melas to generate enough excitement for the cash awards that he doles out.”

A student leader circa 1985, Singh cut his political teeth in the Ram temple movement. He was even named as one of the accused in the demolition of the Babri Masjid, though he was acquitted of all charges in September 2020 after a prolonged legal battle. He joined the BJP because of his closeness to Ashok Singhal, the now deceased leader of the Vishva Hindu Parishad. It was around this time that he set up the Nandini Nagar College in Nawabganj. From here on, his empire only grew in the next two decades, as he entered into a string of other business ventures—a chain of schools, colleges, hotels and hospitals.

In 2009, when the BJP’s fortunes started waning, Singh switched sides to the Samajwadi Party and won the Lok Sabha election that year after defeating the BJP candidate from Kaiserganj. He also first became president of the Wrestling Federation of India in 2011. Sources close to him claim that SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav played an important role in facilitating his appointment. This explains Singh’s connections across party lines as well as the fact that Mulayam’s son and SP chief, Akhilesh Yadav, has remained almost silent on the current controversy even though his ally, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary, went to Jantar Mantar in support of the protesting wrestlers.

Singh himself praised Akhilesh for staying away from the controversy, saying he was “standing with the truth”. Sources close to SP reveal that Singh has retained good ties with the Yadav family even after returning to the BJP in 2014. And rumour has it that he will switch sides again if the BJP denies him a ticket for the 2024 general election, which, Singh said at a recent rally, he has every intention of contesting.

Not just Singh, his entire family is involved in politics. The BJP fielded his wife Ketkidevi Singh from Gonda in 1996 after it could not give Singh a ticket because of a TADA case against him for allegedly harbouring the associates of Dawood Ibrahim. Ketkidevi won that election, thanks to what a close aide calls Singh’s strong “local management system”. She is currently president of the Gonda Zila Panchayat while Singh’s son, Prateek Bhushan Singh, is an MLA from Gonda Sadar. Singh’s own influence, says his aide, extends across the Gonda, Balrampur, Kaiserganj and Behraich districts as well as the Ayodhya Lok Sabha constituency. It is no big deal for him to organise a rally of over 50,000 in any of these parts. He is a Thakur by caste, but has a good hold among Other Backward Classes too.

Back in his ancestral village Vishnoharpur, the big two-storey house sits amidst several acres, boasting two gardens, a big gym, and a huge parking area lined with a fleet of SUVs, which include a Scorpio and an Endeavour. And then there is the Robinson R-66 turbine helicopter parked in the backyard. Outside the house, across a lake, are cow sheds and a stable. Horse riding is one of Singh’s hobbies.

Per his election affidavit for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Singh has movable and immovable assets worth Rs 40.2 crore, while wife Ketaki has movable and immovable assets worth Rs 63.4 crore. Singh also has a pistol, a rifle and a repeater. Wife Ketaki too has a rifle and a repeater in her name.

It isn’t just the material wealth that Singh’s election affidavit reveals, it also has a partial record of the wealth of cases against him. The affidavit mentions only four pending cases: under causing voluntary harm to a public servant (Section 332 of the Indian Penal Code), robbery (Section 392), attempt to murder (Section 307) and illegal payments in connection with an election (Section 171H). Singh himself admitted to a murder in a video interview, as he described himself as a “shaktishaali” (powerful) wrestler in the past. Ask the wrestlers and they claim Singh has over 40 criminal cases against him. Sources in the UP police say he has got a clean chit in most of the cases. But that could be more a function of his clout in the police and administration rather than innocence.

Singh himself denied all the allegations while talking to the media at his residence in Gonda. Once, he also said he has an audio clip to prove that the protest is a conspiracy hatched by Congress leader Deepender Hooda and wrestler Bajrang Punia. “I was ready for a probe,” he told INDIA TODAY. “I am ready for a probe. I am not running away, but these allegations are wrong. In the past 11 years of my tenure, the players who are now accusing me were earlier praising me.” He also spies Baba Ramdev’s hand in his current troubles. “Once I criticised his desi ghee brand, so he has become totally against me.”

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