Bihar elections: A BJP muscleman’s pledge is to check ‘crime by Muslims’

He has been accused by a BJP colleague of having bought his ticket to Raghunathpur constituency for Rs 2 crore. Manoj Singh denies this but is candid about his priorities if he becomes the Raghunathpur MLA — he will contain “anti-national” and “illegal” activities by Muslims, besides setting up a high school for girls and bringing water to the dry canal in the area.

Singh used to be identified as RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin’s muscle man and a bahubali in Siwan region, which was once notorious for crime. Today, Singh blames his former leader, who is now in jail, for having “emboldened” criminal elements among Muslims.

His constituency has 65,000 Muslims and Singh has no illusion that any of them will vote for him. He pledges to rein in “Muslim boys who tease Hindu girls and stop “love jihad”. A lot of Muslim boys are wooing Hindu girls, he notes, while Mulsim girls are exerting a “growing influence” on Hindus. Besides, he says, several Hindu girls have started “wearing masks to copy Muslim girls, and this has increased crimes such as theft here”.

Even during booth management, Singh claims to have stopped, with the help of his supporters, “Muslim women who came in large numbers to cast bogus votes”. He says he is alert about that in this election too.

“They would put mehendi on their fingers three days earlier, so that the indelible ink mark would become removable. They would come in large numbers,” he said. “Our Hindu sisters laze around in their homes till the afternoon and by the time they came to the polling booths, their votes would have been cast by fake voters. I have already made arrangements to stop this.” What arrangements? “That you wait and see,” he said.

Is he a bahubali? “No,” he was firm, then added quickly: “I can do anything in self-defence. If someone tries to harm me or my interests, I will respond in whatever way is suitable. With a knife I can face an adversary who carries an AK-47.”

Sitting BJP MLA Vikram Kunwar has alleged that the party sold Manoj Singh the ticket. “Kunwar was miffed that the party had denied him the ticket,” Singh said. Kunwar, who has since joined the JD(U), has also accused Singh of running a mafia and grabbing land from farmers.

Sitting at a grocery shop in Judvan village, Singh, guarded by three men, spoke about his past association with Shahabuddin, how he broke away, and his friends in the BJP.

Singh and Shahabuddin hail from the same village. Singh says he left him when he found Shahabuddin was “influenced by Islamic terrorist activities” and because of his “anti-national activities”. “I could not bear the fact that Hindu youths were being killed by Shahabuddin’s men,” he said. “People ran away from Siwan; Punjabi and Marwari businessmen fled during Lalu Prasad’s regime. In 1990, I fought for him. But under the influence of Islamic terrorist groups, he started killing Hindus,” said Manoj, whose brother Mrityunjay Singh was shot dead in 2005.

Manoj Singh’s battle is against Harishankar Yadav, who he says is being remote-controlled by Shahabuddin.

By Singh’s calculations, all upper castes —38,000 Rajputs, 27,000 Vaishyas, 19,000 Brahims — as well as 75 per cent of the 30,000 Yadavs and a large number of the 12,000 Kushwahas, 15,000 Paswans and other Dalits will vote for him.

Source : The Indian Express