Bhopal: "If Narendra Modi becomes the Prime Minister of India and tries to make the country as developed as Gujarat, then please don't waste your vote. Just click the button before the lotus for all-round progress of the nation." This appeal is not being made by any hardcore RSS activist or a BJP politician, but a surrendered dacoit. There was a time when 70-year-old Malkhan Singh was a symbol of terror for 15 long years in the Chambal ravine of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. He is now a saffron party mascot during this election, canvassing for the BJP candidate in Bhind and Gwalior regions of Madhya Pradesh.
Malkhan Singh, who loves to be called a rebel (Baaghi) and not a dacoit (Daaku), has a piece of advice to the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi. "If Narendra Modi occupies the top post, then he is the leader of India. He (Modi) has to try his best to tackle the menace of terrorism, Naxalism and violence across the border in the country. After becoming the Prime Minister, he (Modi) would not remain the leader of a particular caste or community but a leader of Hindustan," Malkhan said while addressing election rallies in Gwalior and Bhind.
Madhya Pradesh BJP chief Narendra Singh Tomar is pitted against Ashok Singh of the Congress in Gwalior. In Bhind, the BJP has fielded bureaucrat-turned-politician Bhagirath Prasad, who defected to the BJP hours after his name was announced as the official candidate of the Congress from Bhind. Malkhan Singh has given a much required support to former IAS Bhagirath Prasad who is challenged by Imarati Devi, a down-to-earth two-time Congress MLA from Dabra. Bhagirath Prasad was formerly the Principal Secretary, Home in Madhya Pradesh. He did not expect even in his wildest of imagination that a day would come when he will have to seek the support of a dreaded dacoit of yesteryears. Bhagirath Prasad contested from the Bhind seat as a Congress candidate in 2009, but lost to Ashok Argal of the BJP.
More than 6-feet tall Malkhan Singh with his attractive handlebar moustache struck terror in the Chambal area in the 1980s. Malkhan Singh, along with 100 members of his gang, surrendered before the police in the presence of the then Chief Minister Arjun Singh on June 17, 1982. He had more than 75 cases against him of dacoity, encounter with the police and kidnapping. It is said that Malkhan was literally running a parallel government in the Chambal in those times as his main occupation as a Baaghi was to bring about a revolution and he was a self-styled-arbitrator of local disputes. Malkhan used to intervene in the local issues on his own and got money from both sides for solving the disputes. "I had never extorted money even when I was a Baaghi. If I had done any injustice to the local people and snatched notes (money), then how could I beg for votes," Malkhan Singh said adding that he was really overwhelmed to see the response of the people to his campaign. After contributing his bit, Malkhan is confident of the victory of BJP candidates in Gwalior and Bhind.
Malkhan Singh shared the dais even with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and devoted a fortnight to campaign for the two BJP candidates. Nearly a dozen villages of the Chambal area were covered in a day. Gwalior and Bhind constituencies went to the polls on April 17. However, he has taken a resolution to re-visit the area after the victory to know the problems of the people and ensure fair redress of their grievances through the Member of Parliament. If they (the MPs) would not pay any heed to the problems of the people then he would not hesitate in raising his voice against the two BJP candidates in whose favour he had intensively campaigned. It appears to be a well chalked out strategy to prepare a ground for himself in the area. However, Malkhan Singh promised that he himself would never contest assembly or parliamentary elections. Nobody could dare to touch or tease a girl in my time; he recalled adding that he expected rulers to control crime against women in Gwalior-Chambal region.
After his surrender, Malkhan Singh was elected unopposed Sarpanch of a Panchayat in his native village Sungayayi in the Guna district of Madhya Pradesh. He unsuccessfully contested assembly election from Karera constituency as an Independent candidate. Currently, he is a member of Janpad Panchayat in Aron in Guna District. Now the question arises as to why Malkhan Singh joined the BJP caravan this time. Malkhan Singh has given the answer in his rallies. He said that he was impressed by what Narendra Modi had done in Gujarat and Shivraj Singh Chouhan had done in Madhya Pradesh during the past decade. "I don't like the silence maintained by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for ten long years," he added. Malkhan Singh's new-found love for the BJP is also because of the apathy of the successive previous Congress regimes in the state towards the promises made to his gang at the time of unconditional surrender. If Malkhan Singh and members of his gang are to be believed, then they were rehabilitated by the judiciary and not by the then Congress government.
Malkhan Singh has campaigned openly for the BJP in the Chambal area. However, the Vindhya region of the state is a witness to a different story that a dacoit gang has been supporting the BJP covertly. The Congress had filed a complaint with the Election Commission that Balkhadiya Gang was terrorising villagers to vote for the BJP in the Satna constituency. The complaint was lodged by the election agent of the Congress candidate Ajay Singh "Rahul Bhaiya", son of former Chief Minister Arjun Singh. The Balkhadiya gang has been active in the border area of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The Congress complaint even stated that the members of the dreaded gang were seen in a polling centre on the polling day on April 10 in Chitrakoot assembly segment of Satna constituency. The Election Commission sought the report from SP, Satna who, however, denied movement of the gang in the area in the absence of substantial proof.
What a coincidence! Malkhan Singh surrendered in front of former Chief Minister Arjun Singh and a dacoit gang seems to spoil electoral prospects of Arjun Singh's son Ajay Singh, if the complaint of the Congress is to be believed.
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