Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha | |
In office 16 May 2009 –4 June 2024 | |
Preceded by | Beni Prasad Verma |
Succeeded by | Karan Bhushan Singh |
Constituency | Kaiserganj |
In office 17 May 2004 –16 May 2009 | |
Preceded by | Rizwan Zaheer |
Succeeded by | Constituency Demolished Now Shravasti |
Constituency | Balrampur |
In office 10 October 1999 –6 February 2004 | |
Preceded by | Kirti Vardhan Singh |
Succeeded by | Kirti Vardhan Singh |
Constituency | Gonda |
In office 20 June 1991 –10 May 1996 | |
Preceded by | Raja Anand Singh |
Succeeded by | Ketki Devi Singh |
Constituency | Gonda |
President of Wrestling Federation of India | |
In office 5 April 2012 –21 December 2023 | |
Preceded by | Deepender Singh Hooda |
Succeeded by | Sanjay Singh |
Personal details | |
Born | Gonda,Uttar Pradesh,India | 8 January 1957
Political party | Bharatiya Janata Party (1987–2008,2014–present) Samajwadi Party (2008–2014) |
Spouse | Ketki Devi Singh |
Children | 3,including Prateek Bhushan Singh and Karan Bhushan Singh |
Parent(s) | Late Shri Jagdamba Sharan Singh (father) Smt Pyari Devi (mother) |
Residence | Gonda |
Alma mater | M.A.,L.L.B. |
Website | brijbhushansingh |
As of 12 April,2010 Source: |
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh (born 8 January 1957) is an Indian politician. He was a six-time Member of Parliament from Kaiserganj as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. [1] [2] He was the president of the Wrestling Federation of India. [3] In 2024,his son Karan Bhushan Singh,the president of Uttar Pradesh Wrestling Federation,was fielded in his place as the BJP candidate from Kaiserganj and won by a margin of more than 140,000 votes. [4] [5]
His political career is marked by many controversies;he was arrested in the demolition of the Babri Masjid case and booked under the anti-terrorism law TADA for harbouring the shooters of Dawood Ibrahim gang. [6] However,he was later acquitted in both cases. [7] [8]
He is at the centre of accusations of the sexual harassment of India's top female wrestlers,wherein seven female wrestlers,including one minor,have testified against him in a first information report (FIR). [9] [10] These accusations led to the 2023 wrestlers' protests at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. [11] [12]
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh was born on 8 January 1957 in the Rajput family of Shri Jagdamba Sharan Singh and Smt. Pyari Devi Singh. [13] [14] [15] He studied law at Saket P.G. College in Ayodhya. [8]
He married Ketki Devi Singh in 1981;they have three sons and a daughter. In 2004,their elder son,Shakti Sharan Singh,committed suicide at the age of 23. Reportedly,he shot himself with a licensed pistol and blamed his father's selfish attitude in a suicide note. [16] [17] His other sons are Prateek Bhushan Singh,who has been the BJP MLA of Gonda since 2017,and Karan Bhushan Singh,who is the vice president of WFI and is succeeding Brij Bushan as the BJP's MP candidate from Kaiserganj. [18] [19]
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is a six-time Member of Parliament,five times as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and once as a member of the Samajwadi Party. [8] In 1991,he was elected to the 10th Lok Sabha from Gonda constituency in Uttar Pradesh as the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate. He was re-elected to the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999 from the same constituency. In 2004,he was re-elected to 14th Lok Sabha from Balrampur constituency in Uttar Pradesh state on the BJP ticket. On 20 July 2008,he joined the Samajwadi Party after the BJP expelled him for cross-voting in the parliament during the 2008 Lok Sabha vote of confidence. [8] [20] In 2009,he was re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha from Kaiserganj constituency in Uttar Pradesh state. He rejoined the BJP months before the 16th general election and is currently a member of 17th Lok Sabha from BJP. He was the President of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) from 2012 to 2023.
According to police records,38 criminal cases were lodged against Brij Bhushan Singh between 1974 and 2007. [7] [21] In particular,the FIRs were filed under the stringent Gangsters [22] [23] and Goonda Acts [24] [25] for various charges,including theft,dacoity,murder,criminal intimidation,attempt to murder and kidnapping,though he was acquitted in most of the cases according to his election affidavit. [26] [27] [28]
Singh encountered as many as 38 cases against him under various charges including theft,criminal intimidation,murder,attempt to murder,rioting,and kidnapping. [29]
In 1992,he was involved in the Babri Masjid Demolition case and,along with 39 other people,was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He was the prime suspect but was acquitted by the Supreme Court of India in 2020. According to The Wire ,he later said,"During the movement,I was the first person from the area to be arrested by Mulayam Singh. I was also the first person arrested by the CBI after the controversial structure was demolished." [8]
In 1993,under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act,he was charged with helping associates of Dawood Ibrahim,who allegedly organised the J.J Hospital Shootout in Mumbai. He was acquitted after spending several months in jail. [30] [8]
In his Lok Sabha 2019 affidavit,Singh declared his total liabilities and assets amounting to less than ₹11 crore. [31] Nevertheless,he reportedly owns two helicopters,one private jet,as well as a number of schools,colleges,hotels,and hospitals. [32] [33] [34]
In a video interview with the web portal The Lallantop in 2022,Brij Bhushan stated,"I have committed a murder in the past. Whatever people may say,I did commit a murder. I immediately shot and killed the person who had shot Ravinder dead". Ravinder Singh was his close friend. [8] [35]
After he became the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI),in an interview with The Indian Express ,he said,"They [wrestlers] are strong boys and girls. You need someone strong to control them. Is there anyone stronger than me here?" [8] [36]
In 2021,during a junior wrestling tournament,he was caught on camera slapping a wrestler on stage. [8] [37]
In January 2023, a group of Olympians and international wrestlers including Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia, and others organised a sit-in demanding disbanding of the federation due to alleged sexual harassment of female wrestlers by Brij Bhushan. The protests resumed in April 2023 due to government inaction. The protestors demanded that police file an FIR against Brij Bhushan and called for his immediate arrest. The incidents of sexual harassment cited by protestors ranged from 2012 to 2022. [38] [39] [40]
On 28 April 2023, only after the intervention of the Supreme Court, the Delhi Police registered two FIRs against him. One of the FIRs was registered under the POCSO Act (The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012) for offences against a minor. A second FIR was registered on similar grounds on the complaint of the remaining six adult female wrestlers. [41]
According to a report by the Indian Express , two female wrestler complainants described the way Brij Bhushan used to touch their breasts and stomach sexually on the pretext of checking their breath, in a police complaint on 21 April 2023. One of these women alleged that Brij Bhushan lifted her training jersey without her consent in 2018. [42] [43]
On 12 May, the Delhi Police recorded a statement from Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh regarding the sexual harassment charges levelled against him by female wrestlers [44] and stated that a female DCP would head a SIT (Special Investigation Team) of 10 people against him.[ citation needed ]
The FIRs in the case mention allegations against Brij Bhushan and WFI secretary Vinod Tomar. The allegations include demanding sexual favours for professional assistance in at least two cases, at least 15 incidents of sexual harassment which include inappropriate touching by running hands over breasts, touching the navel, several instances of intimidation including stalking, and a shared sense of fear and trauma. [45] [46] [47] [48] The incidents range from years 2012 to 2022 at different places at restaurant, in the WFI office, at tournaments and at a warm-up. Incidents occurred during domestic as well as international tournaments abroad. [46] [49] Vinesh Phogat, who has won multiple medals at the World Wrestling Championships, claimed she was "mentally harassed, tortured and threatened to be killed" by Brij Bhushan for complaining against him to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then sports minister Anurag Thakur. She was made to face widespread media scrutiny under the guise of missing out on a medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. [50] [51] [52]
The Rashtriya Janata Dal is an Indian political party, based in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Kerala. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav.
General elections were held in India in four phases between 20 April and 10 May 2004. Over 670 million people were eligible to vote, electing 543 members of the 14th Lok Sabha. Seven states also held assembly elections to elect state governments. They were the first elections fully carried out with electronic voting machines.
Bahraich is a city and a municipal board in Bahraich district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Located on the Saryu River, a tributary of the Ghaghara river, Bahraich is 125 kilometres north-east of Lucknow, the state capital. The districts of Barabanki, Gonda, Balrampur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Shravasti and Sitapur share boundaries with Bahraich. A factor which makes this town important is the international border shared with Nepal.
Sushma Swaraj was an Indian lawyer and politician, who served as the Minister of External Affairs of India in the first Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2019. She was the second person to complete a 5-year term as the Minister of External Affairs, after Jawaharlal Nehru. A senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Swaraj was the second woman to hold the office of Minister of External Affairs, after Indira Gandhi. She was elected seven times as a Member of Parliament and three times as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. At the age of 25 in 1977, she became the youngest cabinet minister of the Indian state of Haryana. She also served as 5th Chief Minister of Delhi for a short duration in 1998 and became the first female Chief Minister of Delhi.
Mohan Sanjibhai Delkar was an Indian politician and tribal rights advocate, who was elected seven times as a member of Lok Sabha from Dadra and Nagar Haveli constituency, in the Union Territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu. He had been part of Indian National Congress (INC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (United) (JDU) at various times, and had also founded his own party Bharatiya Navshakti Party for some period.
Prahlad Singh Mulayam Singh Patel is an Indian politician. He is the former Minister of State for Food Processing Industries and Jal Shakti of India from 7 July 2021 till 3 December 2023. He is a Member of Parliament from Damoh Loksabha Constituency in Madhya Pradesh. He was minister of state for coal in Third Vajpayee Ministry. He was first elected to 9th Lok Sabha in 1989 and again re-elected to 11th Lok Sabha in 1996, 13th Lok Sabha in 1999 from Balaghat, 16th Lok Sabha in 2014 and 17th Lok Sabha in 2019 from Damoh. He was born in Narsinghpur and is an advocate by profession. He is a graduate of the Government Science College, Jabalpur.
Balrampur Lok Sabha constituency was a Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituency in northern India. Balrampur is in Uttar Pradesh state. This constituency ceased to exist in 2008 with the implementation of delimitation of the parliamentary constituencies. Most of the area under the erstwhile Balrampur seat now falls under Shravasti Lok Sabha constituency since 2008.
Suvendu Adhikari is an Indian politician from Bharatiya Janata Party who is the current Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly since 2021 and a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly from Nandigram Assembly constituency since 2021 and from Contai South from 2006 to 2009.
Bajrang Punia is an Indian freestyle wrestler and politician, who competes in the 65-kg weight category. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Punia won a bronze medal by defeating Kazakhstan's Daulet Niyazbekov with a 8–0 margin. Punia is the only Indian wrestler to win four medals at the World Wrestling Championships.
Ketki Devi Singh is a former Member of Parliament and former District Council Chief elected from the Gonda district constituency in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh being a Bhartiya Janta Party candidate.
Hukum Singh was an Indian politician who served as the Member of Parliament from Kairana in Uttar Pradesh as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate. He was a member of the Panel of Chairpersons of the 16th Lok Sabha, and the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Water Resources.
Vinesh Phogat is an Indian politician and former wrestler from the state of Haryana. She is a multiple Commonwealth Games gold medalist, having won golds at the 2014, 2018, and 2022 Games. After her last competition in the 2024 Paris Olympics, she retired from wrestling. In September 2024, Phogat joined the Indian National Congress, and became the party's candidate from the Julana constituency for the 2024 Haryana Legislative Assembly election.
Sakshi Malik is a former Indian freestyle wrestler. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she won the bronze medal in the 58 kg category, becoming the first Indian female wrestler to win a medal at the Olympics. In 2017, the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri, the country's fourth-highest civilian award and in 2024, she became the first Indian wrestler to feature in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. She is a part of the JSW Sports Excellence Program, along with fellow female wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Babita Kumari and Geeta Phogat.
Ramvir Singh Bidhuri is the current Member of Parliament for South Delhi Lok Sabha 2024, having won by a large margin on a BJP ticket in the Lok Sabha elections 2024. He was a four-time MLA from Delhi's Badarpur seat. He served as the Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Vidhan Sabha from 2020 to 2024, and he was a member of the Badarpur Vidhan Sabha in Delhi from 1993 to 1998, 2003 to 2008, 2013 to 2015, and 2020 to 2024. In 2024, he was nominated the BJP's candidate for the South Delhi constituency in Delhi, succeeding two-time MP Ramesh Bidhuri.
Prateek Bhushan Singh is an Indian politician. He is a 2nd Term Member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, representing Gonda.
The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) is the premier governing body of wrestling in India. It is headquartered in New Delhi and affiliated to the United World Wrestling (UWW), which makes it the internationally recognized wrestling regulation body of India. Currently headed by Sanjay Singh, the key role of the body is to organize the training and support of wrestlers across India for both domestic as well as international wrestling events. It also regulates wrestling in India as all other state-level wrestling federations across the country fall under its jurisdiction.
Legislative assembly elections are scheduled to be held in Haryana on 5 October 2024 to elect all 90 members of the Haryana Legislative Assembly. The votes will be counted and the results will be declared on 8 October 2024.
In January 2023, Indian wrestlers began protesting for investigation into allegations of sexual harassment of female wrestlers by BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh during his tenure as the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). The female wrestler complainants accused Bhushan of groping, touching their breasts and navels without consent, stalking, intimidation, and demanding "sexual favours" in exchange for professional help, all of which led to a "shared sense of fear and trauma" among the women wrestlers. Bhushan has denied all allegations in front of a government appointed committee.
Karan Bhushan Singh is an Indian politician, member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha for Kaiserganj. He is the son of former 6 time MP & former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. He was made the candidate for Kaiserganj. He is also the president of the Uttar Pradesh Wrestling Association and the president of a cooperative development bank in Nawabganj, Gonda.
{{cite web}}
: |last=
has generic name (help)