Jailed gangster Ritlal Yadav wins Bihar election against JD-U and BJP rivals
2 min readRitlal Yadav, who was appointed the general secretary of the Rashtriya Janata Dal during the Lok Sabha polls last year, had entered the poll fray as an independent after the party declined to field him from the Patna seat which had gone to the JD-U quota under the seat-sharing formula.
Amid allegations and counter-allegations between the National Democratic Alliance and the Nitish Kumar-Lalu Prasad alliance over the return of the jungle raj (lawless days) in Bihar, jailed gangster Ritlal Yadav had the last laugh by winning the state legislative council elections as an Independent from the Patna seat on Friday.
Ritalal, who is at present lodged in the Beur Central Jail in connection with multiple criminal cases, including murder charges, defeated candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal-United.
Ritlal, who was appointed the general secretary of the Rashtriya Janata Dal during the Lok Sabha polls last year, had entered the poll fray as an independent after the party declined to field him from the Patna seat which had gone to the JD-U quota under the seat-sharing formula.
Known as the ‘terror of Danapur” because of his alleged criminal activities in the area over the years, Ritlal had defied his party by filing the nomination papers from the jail even though the RJD had later disowned him.
Ritlal, who has been lodged in the prison for the past five years in connection with the killing of the BJP leader Satya Narayan Sinha, husband of the party’s sitting legislator from Danapur Asha Sinha, had hit the headlines recently after his prison cell was raided by Patna police leading to the recovery of documents related to the railway tenders. It was alleged that he was demanding extortion from the contractors who were bidding for railway tenders in the Danapur division of the East-central railway from the jail.
In 2004, he was accused of killing two contractors – Anil Kumar Yadav and VijayYadav in the air-conditioned coach of Danapur-Howarh Express.
Last year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) moved to confiscated his movable and immovable property worth crores of rupees.
Meanwhile, Lok Janshakti Party candidate Dr Suman Kumar Singh, better known as Ranjit Don, lost from the Nalanda seat to the JD-U candidate Reena Devi.
Ranjit was arrested way back in 2003 for being the alleged kingpin of the racket involved in leaking the question papers of the several medical and engineering entrance tests in the country.
Elections to the 24 Vidhan Parishad seats of the local bodies were held on July 7.
Courtesy: India Today