UP elections: A look at the jailed mafia dons contesting the elections

The electoral battleground of Uttar Pradesh is awash with musclemen, strongmen, history-sheeters and jailed mafia dons who continue to find favour with political parties looking for "safe" candidates who can appeal to or browbeat voters into submission because of their caste identities or terrifying criminal records.

Some among them even enjoy a Robin Hood kind of image in their areas of influence, encouraging them to contest as independent candidates.

Raja Bhaiyya

The 43-year-old scion of the Bhadri royal family in Pratapgarh has been an independent legislator for the past 15 years, despite intense political volatility in the state. His Thakur identity often draws support across party lines, even as he is listed as a gangster in police records, with leaders such as the BJP's Rajnath Singh having come out in his support in the past.

Known for his strong-arm tactics, Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka Raja Bhaiyya is a passionate horse rider and a keen aviator who takes off frequently in his micro lite. Though an independent candidate, contesting from his traditional constituency of Kunda in Pratapgarh, he is supported by the Samajwadi Party, which came to his aid and made him a minister when he was put behind bars by the Mayawati regime in 2002 under the stringent Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Brijesh Singh

A first-time candidate from the Syed Raza constituency in Chandauli district, the promoter of the Pragitisheel Manav Samaj Party, who has been behind bars since 2008, ranks among the most powerful dons in the state. His wife Annapurna Singh and cousin Sushil Singh are Bahujan Samaj Party MLC and MLA respectively.

Ally-turned-rival of the better-known don Mukhtar Ansari, Singh is believed to have lorded over a huge empire of coal mining, railways contracts, scrap disposal and extortions in eastern UP, Bihar and even some border areas of Nepal.

Ever since they fell out, Ansari and Singh are said to have been involved in several vicious murder attempts against each other. Until his arrest, he managed to maintain such a low profile that the state police did not even have his picture on their files. He enjoys the support of several Thakur leaders across parties.

Mukhtar Ansari

The notorious don, an independent MLA from Mau, faces a crucial electoral contest after he lost the 2009 Lok Sabha polls to the BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi. His brother, Shibaqtullah Ansari, who contested as a BSP candidate from Gazipur seat, also lost the parliamentary elections.

Still in jail, Mukhtar Ansari is seeking re-election from Mau under the banner of his newly-floated Qaumi Ekta Dal, while his brother is contesting from Mohamadabad seat in Gazipur. Shunned by all political parties, he has been frequently in and out of jail and he is also an accused in the daylight murder of BJP MLA from Mohamadabad, Krishanand Rai in 2005. Rai had defeated Mukhtar's brother Afzal Ansari in the 2002 polls and was close to his arch-rival and mafia don Brijesh Singh.

Atiq Ahmed

The jailed Allahabad don, who lost the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, needs to win the upcoming elections to maintain his political relevance. He started out as an MLA from Allahabad West and represented the constituency five times in a row.

Later, he handed down the seat to his brother Ashraf Ahmad after getting elected as an MP of the Samajwadi Party from Phoolpur in 2004. Ashraf, however, lost to the BSP candidate Raju Pal in the by-polls.

Pal was, however, killed in broad daylight within four months and the two brothers were named as accused. The Samajwadi Party fielded Ashraf again as its candidate against Pal's widow Puja, who lost before she won in 2007.

Atiq, who contested as an independent from Phoolpur in 2009 Lok Sabha polls after the SP expelled him, was defeated by another strongman Kapil Muni Karwaria. Now, he is seeking election from his former seat Allahabad West as an Apna Dal candidate.

Hari Shankar Tiwari

The first mafia don in the state who successfully switched to politics in the early 1980s, he is a pale shadow of his former powerful self. Tiwari, who has pitched himself as a Brahmin leader in the state, is said to run a well-oiled, corporate-style business of civil contracts from the railways and other departments.

He contested as a Congress candidate from Chillupar constituency in Gorakhpur in 1982 and went on to represent the seat right till 2006.

He became the first don to be appointed a minister in the state, in the Kalyan Singh government in 1997, when he broke away from the Congress party along with a few other MLAs to form the Loktantrik Congress.

Though the ageing don has been denied a ticket by the BSP, his current party, his son Vinay Shankar Tiwari is contesting from Bansi as a BSP candidate. Another son, Bhishm Shankar Tiwari, is already a BSP MP from Sant Kabir Nagar.

Dhananjay Singh

The Lucknow University student leader-turned-mafia don-turned MP has fielded his dentist wife, Dr Jagriti Singh, as an independent candidate from the Malhani seat in Jaunpur. Singh, who ruled the roost during the Mayawati regime, fell out with the chief minister after his name cropped up in the NRHM scam and he was arrested in December 2011 in a double murder case.

The two-time independent MLA from Rari in Jaunpur, Singh had swiftly joined the BSP after it came to power in 2007.

He was considered close to the tainted Mayawati aide and family welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha. Later he won the Lok Sabha seat as a BSP nominee from Jaunpur and in the by-polls got his father elected as a BSP MLA from the Rari seat.

The BJP candidate from Malhani, Pramod Yadav, is out of the fray as his nomination papers were rejected on the grounds of being incomplete. Many see this as the BJP's silent support to his wife's candidature.

Jitendra Singh Babloo

Contesting as a Peace Party candidate from Bikapur, the sitting MLA who won on a BSP ticket has several criminal cases against him. He shot into the limelight after he was accused of vandalising the house of state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi who had made some unparliamentary remarks against Mayawati during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls campaign.

He had then led enraged BSP workers who set a car parked inside on fire and broke furniture kept in the house. The act brought him infamy but he was wooed by the government and was known to throw around his weight in the bureaucracy.

He was accused of getting a hotel constructed without getting the map sanctioned by the authorities and also grabbed several tenders. His name also cropped up for trying to grab a disputed commercial complex in the heart of Lucknow.

Amarmani Tripathi

The former minister who is serving a life term in jail for the murder of poetess Madhumita Shukla is now passing on the baton to his family. He has managed to get tickets for his son Amanmani Tripathi from Nautanwa constituency and uncle Shyam Narain Tripathi from Lakshmipur seat.

Significant others

Other dons contesting the upcoming polls are Prem Prakash Singh alias Munna Bajrangi, from Madiyahu assembly seat in Jaunpur as a candidate of the Kurmi outfit Apna Dal. Bajrangi is an accused in the murder of BJP MLA Krishnand Rai.

Mitrasen Yadav, who was recently convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment by a Faizabad court, is contesting as an SP candidate from Bikapur.

Former BSP MLA Bhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit, who was arrested in 2008 for abducting and raping a college girl, has been fielded by Samajwadi Party from Dibai in Bulandshahr.

Another Samajwadi Party candidate from Gyanpur, Vijay Mishra, is currently in jail for conspiring to get BSP minister and MLA from Allahabad, Nand Gopal Nandi, killed in a bomb attack.

Jailed don Abhay Singh is contesting from Gosainganj assembly segment in Faizabad district on a Samajwadi Party ticket.

Muscleman-turned-politician Krishna Kinkar Singh Rana is contesting from Captainganj, but this time on a Congress ticket.