Patna:He calls himself the messiah of the poor and downtrodden people. He is also known as the Robin Hood of Bihar. However, looking closely at his political journey since 1990, it seems that he is the 'badman' of Bihar.
Much before entering into politics, he made his identity as a notorious college student. Charged with more than 30 criminal cases, 53-years-old Pappu started his political journey in 1990 by being elected as an independent MLA from Singhesarsthan assembly seat.
The Kosi belt had witnessed bloodshed in the early '90s in which hundreds of people were killed in the battle of caste supremacy between two dreaded criminals turned politician Pappu Yadav and Anand Mohan, a Rajput strongman who is currently in jail. Both had severe confrontations and did not even want to see each other's face.
Allegations of murder and kidnapping are not new to him and his presence in politics epitomises the nexus of crime and politics in Bihar. In a very short span of time, he became popular in the Kosi belt of Seemanchal region districts like Purnea, Katihar, Madhepura and Supaul.
Interestingly, the man who spent more than 13 years in jail was once the best performing MP in 16th Lok Sabha. Three times he became MP as an independent candidate from Purnea in 1991, 1996, 1999 two-term MP from Madhepura on RJD ticket in 2004 and 2014.
Pappu Yadav, a five-time Member of Parliament was first arrested on May 24, 1999, in the connection with the murder of CPM legislator Ajit Sarkar and remained in jail for a long time.
Though arrested and thrown behind the bars in Patna Beur jail, there are many famous stories about him in the jail. Pappu had once thrown a lavish party for the jail inmates to celebrate his bail. But when Pappu's jail activities surfaced in the public domain, he was shifted to Tihar jail in Delhi.
Pappu's political career took an important turn in 2004 when RJD supremo Lalu Prasad won Lok Sabha seat from two parliamentary constituencies, Chhapra and Madhepura. Lalu however, chose to keep Chhapra seat and gave Madhepura seat to Pappu Yadav.
Despite being in jail, Pappu managed to expand his network of crime and politics. He ran his network from Buer jail and that was the reason why a raid was conducted in his cell. During the raid, a cell phone was found from his shoe and it came to the notice of the authorities that more than 650 calls were made from the cell phone. Interestingly, several calls were made to a then minister in office.
Shockingly, the calls from Beur jail were made to the prison minister Raghvendra Pratap Singh, minister for irrigation Jagdanand Singh and power minister Shyam Razak.
Speaking to ETV Bharat on the condition of anonymity, a former IPS officer said that one such call was also made to a private secretary of the then Chief Minister Rabri Devi.
In 2008, he was convicted in the murder of CPM’s one-time Purnea legislator, Ajit Sarkar. The special CBI court had convicted him in the murder of the firebrand legislator who was doing a good job in terms of issues related to farm labour.
Sarkar was gunned down in the running car on May 14, 1998, along with his driver Harendra Sharma and one party worker Ashfaqur Rehman. Altogether three people were killed. In this case, CBI had charge-sheeted five people including Pappu Yadav.
When the CBI court had pronounced the judgment, he broke down in the courtroom and had urged the judge to show leniency. Later he had appealed to the court to grant him bail for the surgery to lose the weight, however, his appeal was denied.
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In 2013, after serving in jail for 12 continuous years, the dreaded don turned politician was acquitted by Patna High Court in Sarkar's murder case. However, the CBI soon went to appeal against the order and till now the matter is pending before the apex court.
He could not contest 2009 Lok Sabha poll but ensured that his wife Ranjeet Ranjan contested and won from Supaul parliamentary seat on Congress ticket. Pappu had a love marriage with Ranjeet Ranjan and had tied the knot in 1994 itself. Their love story started on a tennis court and the better halves always stood side-by-side even in the most difficult phases of their life. Probably for the first time, the Indian parliament has seen both husband and wife as members of Lok Sabha from two different political parties.
He is the father of two children, Sarthak Ranjan and Prakriti Ranjan and loves to sing old songs. He was given the nickname Pappu by his grandfather Laxmi Prasad Mandal. Due to helping nature, he is also considered the voice of the Kosi region.
Pappu takes pride in saying that he is 'Bahubali' (strongman) for the rich people who exploit the poor and he just delivers justice to them.
During his time in jail, Pappu tried to change his image and penned his autobiography titled ‘Drohkal Ka Pathik’ (One who walked in a period of rebellion).
Pappu has a degree in Political Science from BN Mandal College, Madhepura University, a post-graduate diploma in human rights and a postgraduate diploma in disaster management from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi. He has also done post-graduate in Social Science from IGNOU.
In 2015 he formed his own political outfit, Jan Adhikar Party after he was expelled from RJD for having indulged in 'anti-party activities'. The don who once used to roam in the lane and bylanes of Seemanchal region recently focused himself in the State capital Patna.
Last year, his Robin Hood persona came to the public domain during the flood in Patna in which he took the extra effort to provide food and medicines to the people who were trapped in the floods. Despite all this good work, he has not seen any political success ever since he formed his party.
It would be interesting to see how the people react to this badman who tried to become a saint in the changed political scenario of the upcoming Bihar assembly elections in which Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has set his goal for a fourth consecutive term.
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