In Uttar Pradesh's Banasfa village, former MP Dhananjay Singh plays the Good Samaritan extending a helping hand to villagers who queue up at his doorstep. But Singh has 10 cases pending against him and is seen by many as a 'bahubali or a muscleman. Singh, a JD(U) candidate from Malhani assembly constituency of Jaunpur district , laughs away the 'mafia' tag, saying "I am enjoying it".
"I am not wanted in any case, but I am forcibly being made mafia as part of publicity by a party. I am accountable to the people of my area and the public knows who I am." Singh says he is not competing with the SP candidate in the UP polls but contesting against the entire party headed by Akhilesh Yadav. The SP chief had on January 5 tweeted a video in which Singh was seen playing cricket. In his tweet, Yadav had alleged that the BJP is working with criminals and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath needs to prepare a list of "the top ten mafias affliated to his party and start the MBL — Mafia BJP League on the lines of IPL."
Without taking any names and citing the video where Singh is seen playing cricket with children, Akhilesh in recent public meetings had also said that the 'mafia' is playing cricket under the Yogi government. At the Banasfa village, about 10 kilometers from Jaunpur district headquarters, hundreds of locals queue up at the house of Singh who meets them and asks them to ensure his victory in the assembly elections. Sulli a resident of the village informed Singh about her husband's illness and asks him to help. Singh asks his men to get her husband admitted to the hospital. Similarly, hundreds of others inform the former MP about their problems during the interaction.
Asked about SP leaders calling him 'mafia', Singh replies, "I am not fighting their candidate here but the entire Samajwadi Party. Their chief is tweeting against me. If he is giving so much importance to Malhani, then I will only assume that the SP is fighting against me." "All the Samajwadi Party leaders come here to campaign. They are welcome. On this pretext, they will visit my area and I will win the election with a good margin," Singh said.
Asked about the allegations levelled by Akhilesh Yadav, Singh says the SP chief is doing this for political gains. "I don't have any cases against me. He is accusing me under pressure from those who are contesting elections from the party and his allies," he said. On Yadav's claims that a reward has been declared on Singh, the former MP said, "There is no reward on me. Only Akhilesh Yadav knows what he tweets. I only know that on March 4, a reward was declared on me and on March 5 itself, I surrendered in the court. "I am not a fugitive accused of terrorism. I am not absconding. I have been in jail for a month after surrendering. Why will they announce reward against me when I was in their custody. It was just a conspiracy to malign my image, there is no reward on me." He said, "I have distributed more food grains to the people in our area than the government. I have been in politics in his area for the last 20 years. Our people helped residents of the area during the lockdown. During that period, people of the Samajwadi Party, the BJP and the Congress did not helped the people." "Development is the biggest issue in the area. For the last ten years, Samajwadi Party's representatives have been here but they have nothing to do with the general public," said Singh.
In January 2021, Mau's former block chief representative Ajit Singh was murdered in Lucknow and there were allegations against Singh but he claimed he is not wanted in this case. According to the affidavit filed in the assembly elections, ten cases against Dhananjay are pending in the courts, including one under the Gangster Act. Widow of Ajit Singh, a local resident who was murdered in 2021, has demanded cancellation of Singh's nomination in the assembly election. Singh contested and won for the first time in 2002 from Rari assembly seat as an independent candidate. Rari Assembly seat has been renamed as Malhani after delimitation.
In the 2007 UP assembly elections, he won on JD(U) ticket from Rari assembly seat and became an MLA. Leaving JD(U), Singh joined Bahujan Samaj Party in 2008 and became an MP by winning from Jaunpur seat in 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Singh's wife Jagriti Singh contested the 2012 assembly seat from Rari as an independent candidate but lost. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Singh contested as an independent candidate but he too lost. In the 2017 assembly elections, he lost the election from Malhari seat on a Nishad party ticket and in 2020, he lost the by-election as an independent from Malhari.
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