New Delhi: Amidst the hustle and bustle of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government on March 22 provided Y-category security to Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Abhay Singh, who cross-voted for BJP candidate in the recently held Rajya Sabha polls. It’s being seen as a reward for his favour.

Singh’s relations with his party chief, Akhilesh Yadav, soured after the former visited Ram temple as part of the group of MLAs who were invited to visit Ayodhya by the UP Assembly speaker allegedly on behalf of the ruling BJP.

It is believed that relations between them deteriorated due to Singh going to Ram temple despite Akhilesh’s refusal.

Only after this, Singh voted for the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections — stating that he made the decision listening to his conscience.

A resident of Ayodhya, Singh began his political career with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), but later, he joined the SP.

He became MLA for the first time in 2012 when he defeated BJP leader Aarti Tiwari’s husband and muscleman leader Indra Pratap Tiwari alias Khabbu Tiwari. But in the next election in 2017, he had to face defeat from Khabbu.

He won his second election on an SP ticket from Gosainganj seat in the 2022 assembly elections. This time, he defeated BJP’s nominee Aarti Tiwari by about 13,000 votes.

A Distant Relative of Ex-PM VP Singh

Born on May 24, 1974, in Jaunpur, Abhay Singh claims to be a distant relative of former Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh. A graduate from Lucknow University in 1994, he is an agricultural expert by profession.

Once considered as the right hand of gangster-turned politician Mukhtar Ansari — then a BSP legislator, Singh is counted among the influential and powerful leaders of Purvanchal (eastern Uttar Pradesh). It is also said that he could achieve the political leap with Mukhtar’s blessings.

Crime and Politics Go Hand in Hand

He was accused of having involvement in several political killings, including the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai and Lucknow District Jail Superintendent R K Tiwari. 

An upright officer, who was gunned down in February 1999 in broad daylight at a busy road junction in the state capital, Tiwari was thorn in the eye of criminals for putting an end to the undue privilege and facilities they were enjoying in the prison. Ansari was one among those who had suffered at his hand. The incident had sent shockwaves through the BJP’s Kalyan Singh government, which was boasting about having brought crime under control.

Apart from the kin of the well-known politician, the jailer’s approach had also annoyed Singh who had once had a heated exchange with the officer on the prison premise.  

Abhay Singh’s name has propped up in many high-profile cases in the state.

He again grabbed headlines for his alleged involvement in BJP lawmaker Krishnanand Rai’s murder. A purported audio of a conversation between him and Ansari had gone viral. There was a mention of Munna Bajrangi chopping off Rai’s hair after killing him.

Singh was also accused of murder of Lucknow Chief Medical Officer Vinod Arya. The police had described him as the main conspirator. However, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which had investigated the case, later gave him a clean chit. 

Abhay Singh has alleged dominance on all the government contracts of the Purvanchal region.