VARANASI: In a bid to retain his family’s hold over Varanasi MLC (local bodies) constituency, jailed mafia don and MLC Brijesh Singh filed his nomination on Wednesday. The seat has been with his family since 1998. The seat comprises three districts -- Varanasi, Bhadohi and Chandauli.
His wife and former MLC Annapurna Singh also filed her papers for the same seat. Brijesh had won this election in 2016 after his wife completed her term.
Deputy district election officer and returning officer for MLC (local bodies) election Ran Vijay Singh said, “Two candidates — Brijesh Singh and Annapurna Singh — filed their papers as independent candidates. Earlier, one Jai Ram of Lok Dal had filed his papers on Tuesday.”
As per the revised schedule issued by the Election Commission of India, the nomination filing process for MLC polls will continue till March 21. Earlier, when nomination was started from February 4, Brijesh and his wife had purchased the forms, but the election was postponed in view of the assembly polls.
The records of MLC (local bodies) election for Varanasi constituency show that in 1998 Brijesh’s brother Udaynath Singh alias Chulbul Singh had won this seat for the first time and retained it in 2004. In 2010, Annapurna contested on Bahujan Samaj Party ticket and emerged victorious.
In 2012, Brijesh initially tried his luck in UP assembly election contesting from Saiyyedraja seat in Chandauli district on the ticket of a lesser-known political party, Pragatisheel Manav Samaj Party. However, he lost against Independent Manoj Singh Dabloo. After winning the election, Manoj joined the SP.
After this, Brijesh decided to contest the MLC election in 2016 and for campaigning for her husband Annapurna was expelled from BSP on the charges of anti-party activities. When Brijesh came into fray, SP tried to repeat the experiment of Saiyyedraja assembly election 2012 by fielding Manoj’s sister Meena against him.
However, of 4,257 votes cast for the election in Varanasi, Bhadohi and Chandauli districts of the constituency in 2016, Brijesh secured 3,038 votes while Meena could manage only 1,084. BJP, BSP and Congress had avoided fielding any candidate in this election in 2016 while results also showed that SP suffered the problem of cross voting.
With the victory in 2016, Brijesh proved the monopoly of his family on Varanasi seat of UP legislative council.
