Yadav

New Delhi, Feb. 20: After Bollywood and cricket, the BJP today turned to the badlands of western Uttar Pradesh.

Its first catch was Dharam Pal Yadav, who faces 30 criminal cases, including murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and extortion. Nineteen of these cases have been registered by the state police and 11 by Delhi police.

The BJP, however, said Yadav was granted entry after he reportedly assured its president M. Venkaiah Naidu that he was acquitted of all charges. Yadav’s son is also no stranger to criminal cases — he was charged in the murder of Jessica Lal in 1999 and that of his sister’s date in 2002.

That the BJP was not at ease with the decision became evident at today’s news briefing where Naidu and general secretary Pramod Mahajan introduced Yadav and two others. While Yadav flashed the “V” sign repeatedly, Naidu and his colleagues shuffled uneasily as the cameras clicked away.

After Mahajan read out a compressed CV of all three, Naidu informed the media that they would leave immediately and those who wished to question the newcomers could “contact” them later. In the last few days, every acquisition was shown off with fanfare and the media was allowed to ask them questions.

Yadav, 56, a native of Bulanshahr near Noida, began his career by selling country liquor in pouches in the early 1980s and then secured a government licence to set up a liquor shop in Dadri near Ghaziabad. He reportedly controls two-thirds of the licensed liquor shops in Uttar Pradesh.

He made his political debut courtesy Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in 1989, when he won the Bulandshahr Assembly seat on a Janata Dal ticket and was rewarded with a ministry.

He represented the constituency thrice but fell out with his mentor in 1994 after which he joined the Bahujan Samaj Party. In 1996, Yadav was elected to the Lok Sabha from Sambhal as an Independent with the BJP’s support. He contested against Mulayam Singh in 1998, lost and entered the Rajya Sabha.

Nobody in the BJP was willing to go on record to say why Yadav was taken in. “It is to ensure that we have a level playing field against the Samajwadi Party goon brigade in Uttar Pradesh. In Bihar, too, we need persons like D.P. Yadav,” a source said.

A section of the BJP was believed to be unhappy with the penchant shown by Naidu and Mahajan to rope in stars and celebrities because, a source said, “it detracts from the seriousness of our political campaign”.

But Yadav, sources admitted, took the cake not only because of his own crime record but that of his son, Vikas, who was charged in 1999 in the Jessica Lal murder case along with a Congressman’s son, Manu Sharma. After absconding for a while, Vikas surrendered and was released on bail.

Again, in 2002, he was charged with the murder of Nitish Katara for dating his sister, Bharti. Even police think that Vikas would not have attempted to commit such a crime in so short a span without the patronage of his father and his political network.

With Mulayam Singh indicating that he may contest the Lok Sabha polls, possibly from Sambalpur, the BJP may put up Yadav against him to pin the chief minister down to the constituency.