ON MARCH 2, former MP Dhananjay Singh, 48, declared that he would be contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Jaunpur. In a post on X, the bahubali (strongman) of Uttar Pradesh’s Purvanchal said, "Saathiyon, taiyyar rahiye, lakshya bas ek. Lok Sabha 73, Jaunpur (Friends! Be ready. our target is only one, Lok Sabha seat No. 73, Jaunpur)." His announcement coincided with the release of the BJP's first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, which included Kripashankar Singh from Jaunpur. Kripashankar, a former minister of state in the 1999-2003 Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra, switched allegiance to the BJP in 2021. Jaunpur, the ancestral home of both Kripashankar and Dhananjay, has approximately 19 lakh voters, predominantly OBCs, with a substantial share of the Yadav, Brahmin and Thakur communities. So far, no other party has declared its candidate for the seat. On March 5, days after Dhananjay had announced his intentions to contest elections, his political aspirations took an abrupt turn when an MP-MLA court in Jaunpur found him guilty in a four-year-old case involving kidnapping, extortion and criminal conspiracy. He and his associate Santosh Vikram Singh were sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in the case. A well-known criminal-turned-politician of UP, among many others in the state's ranks, Dhananjay has faced numerous cases, from Lucknow and Jaunpur to Delhi, over the years. But the recent conviction marks his first legal setback. Crucially, he has not won an election since 2009. A Thakur, Dhananjay first hit headlines in the state while still enrolled at Lucknow University, figuring routinely in connection with university politics and criminal cases. In 1998, he went into hiding after the Uttar Pradesh Police issued a reward of Rs 50,000 for him in a criminal case. That same year, he was reported among four people killed in an encounter with the Bhadohi district police, turning up alive around four months later. In 2002, Dhananjay contested and won the Rari Assembly seat in Jaunpur as an Independent candidate. He successfully retained the seat in 2007, this time as a JD(U) candidate. That same year, Dhananjay's first wife Meenu Singh was found hanging at their Gomti Nagar residence. Police later ruled the death as suicide. Subsequently, Dhananjay aligned himself with the BSP and won the Jaunpur Lok Sabha seat on its ticket in 2009. In a by-election for the Rari Assembly seat he had to renounce to join Parliament, his father Rajdev Singh was elected in 2009. Around six months later, he got married a second time, to Jagriti Singh, a dentist. In 2011, BSP supremo Mayawati expelled Dhananjay soon after he called on the ailing SP leader Amar Singh (since deceased). Two months later, the BSP revoked his suspension, but days later, the UP Police arrested Dhananjay from his residence in connection with a 2010 double-murder case. While Dhananjay was incarcerated, Jagriti contested the 2012 Assembly elections as an Independent from Malhani seat in Jaunpur, but was defeated by the SP’s Parasnath Yadav. Even as electoral success has eluded Dhananjay for nearly 10 years now, he has remained in the public eye for one or the other reason. In 2013, Jagriti was arrested by the Delhi Police in connection with the death of her housemaid at their Delhi home. Dhananjay was also arrested on charges of destroying evidence related to the death. In 2021, Dhananjay was booked for the Lucknow murder of Ajit Singh, a former block pramukh of Mau. In the last elections he fought, the 2022 Assembly polls, Dhananjay contested from Malhani in Jaunpur on a JD(U) ticket, and lost to the SP's Lucky Yadav. Last year, there was a moment of relief in Dhananjay's political career when his associate, Srikala Reddy, won the election for the chairman of Jaunpur zila panchayat. BJP Jaunpur district president Pushpraj Singh said Dhananjay has little influence left in the Jaunpur Lok Sabha seat, and that his conviction would not make any difference. As he was being escorted to jail after his conviction, Dhananjay called the case a "conspiracy to stop him from contesting". Under provisions of the Representation of the People Act (RPA) 1951, a person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years shall be disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years after his release. His disqualification can be reversed if a higher court grants a stay on the conviction or decides the appeal in his favour. Dhananjay Singh’s lawyer Rahul Tiwari said they would file an appeal against the judgment in a higher court.
