RSS hand, teacher, BJP rebel, now MLA accused in attack

Once a teacher at Maharaja Surajmal Inter-College in Agra, Singh was active in teachers’ politics and held posts in the Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh, an association of intermediate teachers, in the 1970s and 1980s, sources close to him said. He joined the BJP in the late 1980s and was eventually appointed its district president. He contested his first assembly election from Dayalbagh of Agra in 1991, losing to the Janata Dal’s Vijay Singh Rana; two years later, he defeated Rana.

In 1996, he lost to the BSP’s Kishan Lal Baghel, beginning his political isolation. In 2002, BJP did not give him the ticket and allotted the seat to Ajit Singh’s RLD, then its alliance partner. Udaybhan Singh rebelled, contested as an independent and finished fourth, but he was ahead of the RLD, a party dominated by Jat leaders.

In 2007, Singh was back in the BJP and contested the election again, finishing third. By 2012, Dayalbagh constituency had ceased to exist; Singh failed to get a ticket to any other seat either.

Party sources said Singh was keen on contesting the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Fatehpur Sikri but the party chose Chaudhary Babulal, a Jat leader who had joined the BJP recently after leaving the RLD. Babulal won the election.

A BJP leader from Agra said Singh still has to establish himself as a leader among Jats in Fatehpur Sikri, where Babulal enjoys much more support. “Udaybhan Singh is totally different from Babulal. He does not have the image of an aggressive leader like Babulal,” the BJP leader said. “Udaybhan has the image of a teacher. His politics has been city-centric. His family is involved in real estate in Agra. He also runs an NGO to help poor patients.”

With Babulal Singh in the Lok Sabha, the Fatehpur Sikri assembly seat had several claimants this year. After the BJP chose Singh, he won by 50,000 votes.

In his election affidavit, Singh had declared he had no criminal cases against him. He now denies that he instigated the mobs that attacked the police. “I am a dedicated and disciplined worker of RSS. I have been going to RSS shakhas since childhood and been a teacher of Hindi and Sanskrit,” he told The Indian Express. “I could never behave in a violent manner. Police officials have implicated me as I had witnessed them assaulting youths at the police station,” he said.

Singh said he was travelling to Agra from Mehandipur Balaji temple in Rajasthan when he came to know of the clash. “I had not gone there on purpose. After the police assaulted the youths, it had become necessary for me to intervene,” he said. “It is also wrong to call the incident communal and defame Hindutva. I have never been involved in any communal incident. I have Muslim friends and live in a locality with Muslims.”