This story is from January 23, 2023

How Gonda strongman Brij Bhushan Singh's career soared before wrestlers’ move put him on the mat

The footnote to six-time MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's political CV would be a long chronology of criminal cases — at one point totalling 30 FIRs, including one filed under the erstwhile Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act.
How Gonda strongman Brij Bhushan Singh's career soared before wrestlers’ move put him on the mat
LUCKNOW: The footnote to six-time MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's political CV would be a long chronology of criminal cases — at one point totalling 30 FIRs, including one filed under the erstwhile Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act.
If the Gonda strongman's career curve in politics despite all of this appears confounding, the one ring in which he always projected the aura of invincibility — wrestling — may have ironically put his career on the mat, at least for the time being.

Accused of persistent sexual harassment by a group of Olympians and other champion international wrestlers, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president has been asked to stay away from the affairs of the federation for four weeks, till an Indian Olympic Association panel probes and submits its report on the allegations against him.
Brij Bhushan, who is fond of travelling by chopper and calls the shots in scores of educational institutions in Gonda and its surrounding areas, has been around in politics for three decades. His name shares space in the CBI files with Dawood Ibrahim on the one hand, and saffron titans such as LK Advani, MM Joshi and Kalyan Singh on the other.
According to CBI records, Brij Bhushan allegedly harboured shooters of Dawood who had gunned down three people at Mumbai’s JJ Hospital in 1992. Three months later, he was accused of conspiring with those behind the demolition of the Babri Masjid. He was eventually exonerated in both cases. His latest poll affidavit, filed before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, mentions four pending criminal cases.
Born in 1957 at Bisnoharpur village, Brij Bhushan is from a family of former Congress members. He earned his political spurs at Ayodhya’s Saket Degree College as the student union’s general secretary. In politics as in wrestling, Brij Bhushan thrived by cultivating the image of a bahubali (strongman) in Gonda and the surrounding districts.

Brij Bhushan’s journey as an MP started in 1991 when BJP fielded him for his active role in Ram Janmabhoomi movement. In 1996, he was in Tihar jail for allegedly helping Dawood’s henchmen; hence the party fielded his wife Ketaki, who won by 80,000 votes.
Brij Bhushan returned to win from Gonda in 1999 before being embroiled in a dispute with RSS functionary Nanaji Deshmukh over renaming Gonda as Jayaprkash Nagar ahead of 2004 polls. He was shifted to Balrampur seat after being replaced in Gonda by BJP MLA Ghanshyam Shukla. The latter died in a road accident on the day of polling, leading to allegations of murder.
His relations with BJP started worsening after this and he joined Samajwadi Party just before the 2009 LS polls. SP fielded him from Kaiserganj and he won for the fourth time. However, months before the 2014 LS elections, he returned to BJP and won the Kaiserganj seat twice after that.
With the rise in his political stature, Brij Bhushan’s passion for wrestling kept growing. He took over as the WFI chief in 2011 and has been elected to the post thrice since.
Brij Bhushan’s younger son Karan Bhushan Singh is now the vice-president of the WFI. One of his sons-in-law is an office-bearer of Bihar Wrestling Federation. His youngest son Prateek is a two-time MLA from Gonda, while wife Ketaki is the Gonda Zila Panchayat president.
According to CBI records, Brij Bhushan allegedly harboured shooters of Dawood who had gunned down three people at Mumbai’s JJ Hospital in September 1992. Three months later, he was accused of conspiring with those behind the demolition of the Babri Masjid. He was eventually exonerated in both cases. His latest poll affidavit, filed before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, mentions four pending criminal cases.
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