12 years after dreaded dacoit Dadua’s death, his brother and son eye Lok Sabha entry from Bundelkhand region
BHOPAL: Twelve years after dreaded inter-state dacoit Shiv Kumar Patel alias Dadua was gunned down by the special task force of UP police (UP STF) in UP’s Chitrakoot district, his son and brother are looking to make their way to the Lok Sabha through multi-cornered contest from two separate seats of Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh and UP.
While Dadua’s brother Bal Kumar Patel is contesting on Congress ticket from Banda seat of UP, the dreaded dacoit’s son Veer Singh is eyeing to reach the lower house of the Parliament as Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance candidate from Khajuraho seat of Madhya Pradesh.
But it’s not the first time that Dadua’s son and brother are contesting polls, as both have been lawmakers in the past also, though from different parliamentary and assembly seats of UP.
Dadua’s son Veer Singh (39) who was in the past the Chitrakoot district panchayat chairman in UP, also won the 2012 assembly polls from Chitrakoot seat in UP, but lost from the same seat in 2017.
On the other hand, Dadua’s brother, 58-year-old Bal Kumar Patel had won the Mirzapur Lok Sabha seat of East UP as Samajwadi Party candidate in 2009 but denied ticket by the same party in 2014 general elections.
According to political watchers in Bundelkhand region, Dadua’s son and brother are eyeing the large chunk of Kurmi (Patel) votes in both Khajuraho and Banda, but they will be locked in a fierce multi-cornered electoral contest on both seats.
While, Bal Singh Patel faces two ex-MPs RK Singh Patel (BJP) and Shyama Charan Gupta (SP-BSP) from Banda seat, his nephew Veer Singh will take on Congress’s Kavita Singh (wife of Congress MLA Vikram Singh ‘Natiraja’) and BJP candidate, who is yet to be decided.
While the Banda seat in UP has so far been won only once by a Patel caste candidate, RK Singh Patel of Samajwadi Party in 2009, powerful BJP politician and ex-MP minister Ramkrishna Kusmaria ‘Babaji’ (who is now in Congress) was the lone Kurmi (Patel) politician to have won from Khajuraho seat of MP – a seat which has been won four times by present union minister and ex-MP Chief Minister Uma Bharti in the past.
Shiv Kumar Patel alias Dadua, the dreaded dacoit who unleashed a reign of terror in Bundelkhand region of UP and MP and carried a bounty of Rs 5.5 lakh on the head from UP-MP police was gunned down by a UP STF team in Chitrakoot district of UP in 2007.
Importantly, the gang led by Dadua and his second-in-command Ambika Patel alias Thokia (who was gunned down by UP STF in 2008) influenced the Kurmi (Patel) voters in at least 30 assembly seats of UP and adjoining MP in the 1990s and early 2000.