Omar Rashid 
Five years ago, the Narendra Modi-led Union government read down Article 370, taking Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and statehood, and splitting it into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019. The past five years have seen sweeping changes, glaring rights abuses and big developments in the region. This series looks at where J&K was and where it is now, five years after the move.
New Delhi: In March 2016, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, then a Union minister in the Narendra Modi government, was addressing the national convention of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) youth wing in Mathura, when he dispensed lessons from Hindu mythology. Referring to the Mahabharata, he drew a parallel between the Battle of Kurukshetra and the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
The story in his words:
“Kunti (mother of Pandavas) had received a boon from Lord Krishna, which she could ask for when he desired. The Pandavas were in exile. Kunti could have asked for victory in the battle and return of the lost throne. But she didn’t. Instead of asking for the throne for Pandavas, she sought unrelenting hardships, so that she could remember the lord. And when the Pandavas won, Bhima and Arjuna conveyed to Kunti that it was time to take over the throne. But Kunti refused. An outraged Bhima asked her why, since she was the one who inspired them to fight for the throne. Kunti’s response to Bhima was inspiring: ‘to fight for justice, this is the dharma of a Kshatriya. That is why I had ordered you to fight. Now that we have secured victory, our dharma is different. My brothers-in-law are going on a vanvas, I will go along and serve them. I will not stay here to enjoy the throne’.”
The essence of the narration was that the 2014 parliamentary election victory had changed the duties of the BJP youth workers, who were, after capturing power, expected to act as couriers of the Modi government and take its schemes to as many people in the country in the shortest time.
That was a glimpse of Sinha, the BJP karyakarta, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-groomed man, who nearly became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. However, he was driven into temporary political wilderness following a defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls before remerging into the scene as Modi’s trusted hand to oversee the task of managing life in Jammu and Kashmir post the dilution of special rights under Article 370.
The post of Lieutenant Governor provided a new life to Sinha, whose tenure has been eventful as well as controversial. Most recently, he was under the scanner after it emerged that he had allegedly drawn public funds in Jammu and Kashmir to fund his son’s engagement ceremony in 2021.
It’s been four years since Sinha was dispatched to Srinagar. But he continues to make his political presence felt in his native state, Uttar Pradesh, especially in and around the fertile Gangetic lands of Ghazipur.
Here, we trace his political journey, from the feudal lands of Ghazipur to the factory of right-wing politics in the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi to New Delhi.
In his four-decade long public life, Sinha has seen many ups and downs. Despite not boasting an exceptional electoral record, he continues to stay relevant, as a top national-level leader of the Bhumihars, a dominant landed upper caste community found in East Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Bihar.
The 2024 Lok Sabha election battle in Ghazipur, one of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, was fought under the shadow of Sinha’s overarching presence. Sinha has represented the seat thrice in parliament in 1996, 1999 and 2014. This time, the BJP fielded Paras Nath Rai, a fellow Bhumihar and Sinha’s close associate, as its candidate in Ghazipur.
There was speculation that Sinha’s son Abhinav Sinha would fill in his father’s shoes but the party decided against that and instead nominated Paras Nath, an RSS functionary and educationist. Like Sinha, he was also a product of the BHU student politics.
As a trusted associate, Paras Nath handled Sinha’s elections over the years and instantly the message sent to the larger public was that he would act as a proxy candidate on behalf of LG Sinha. That perception was strengthened when Sinha landed in Ghazipur days before voting, visiting temples, touring the constituency and attending seemingly non-political events. But their electoral significance was not lost on anyone.
The Opposition parties accused him of misusing his authority to campaign for the BJP. The actual election lasted from the fourth week of March to the first week of June. Many of the events, which Sinha attended during this period, were tightly linked to the BJP’s electoral messaging and RSS’ Hindutva agenda.
In April, Sinha participated in a symposium ‘Hindu Sanatan Dharm ki Prasangikta (The Relevance of Hindu Sanatan Dharma)’ in Ghazipur. He was the chief guest at the event organised by an NGO Utthan Foundation Trust, founded in 2015. Notably, Sinha serves as its mentor and patron. The trust has several RSS members, including Paras Nath, on its board. It works with rural communities, especially tribals, focused on their education, health and employment.
Addressing the event, Sinha said the last ten years, coinciding with the Modi rule, had brought a big change in the country’s culture and thought and re-energised Sanatana culture.
“The deep darkness of amavasya (no moon) on India’s spiritual and cultural life has started to shed. People can see a new light of awakening in society. The lotus of new achievements have started to bloom in large numbers,” Sinha said.
A few days later, Sinha addressed a seminar on ‘National Education Policy 2020’ organised by a school in Mohammadabad, Ghazipur. He said that after centuries, there had been a new awakening in the society and after several decades the country had a new education policy that was rooted in Indian ethos. In the fourth week of April , he also addressed a conference on the ‘Role of Citizens in Holistic Development’ organised at Ghazipur.
On May 4, when the election was at its peak, Sinha attended an event where meritorious students were awarded at the Dr B.R. Ambedkar Inter-College in Ghazipur. There, he stressed on the primary objective of quality education being nation building. A day before that he had also visited the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, and paid obeisance with a dandvat pranam (lying flat on the floor with outstretched folded hands).
In Ghazipur, Sinha also visited the Budhenath Mahadev Mandir near the Ganga and addressed an event for newlyweds. Further, he spoke at a seminar on the 21st century and self-reliant India, organised by the Varanasi Nagar Udyog Vyapar Mandal.
On May 28, four days before the final phase of voting, he participated in a Ganga Arti programme at the Chitnath ghat.
“The Sanatan society, broken after thousands of years of slavery, is now dedicating itself to building a new Sanatan system. Lawlessness has ended. Ram Rajya has started to return,” said Sinha on the ghats of the Ganga.
Paras Nath downplays the electoral significance of Sinha’s election-time visits, which he said were nothing unusual.
“Manoj Sinha has an attachment with Ghazipur,” said 69-year-old Paras Nath, who is four years senior to Sinha.
“Such allegations were also made during the 2022 Assembly election when he toured Ghazipur and visited temples.”
Paras Nath further said that it had become customary for Sinha to visit Ghazipur, whether he was MP or LG, and spend time at “four-five places with (his) old friends,” to partake in their moments of grief and happiness, even when there was no election.
“Coincidentally, this time his visit fell during the election season,” said Paras Nath.
Yogendra Nath Rai, a senior BJP leader and long-time associate of Sinha, said his trip to Ghazipur was “short but hectic,” consisting of addressing social events of national questions.
Both Sinha’s close associates are quick to brush aside the notion that he still plays an active role in state politics, even as it is widely accepted that he has a say in ticket distribution and allocation of posts. Paras Nath’s candidature for instance. Then, Sunil Singh, a former RSS pracharak close to Sinha, was appointed Ghazipur district president of the BJP last year. Bhanu Pratap Singh, the previous district chief, was also on Sinha’s flank. Sangeeta Balwant, an OBC leader, who also shares close ties with Sinha, was earlier this year elected to the Rajya Sabha, even though in 2022 she couldn’t retain her assembly seat in Ghazipur, where the BJP lost all seven constituencies to the Samajwadi Party.
Yogendra Nath said since being appointed as LG, Sinha has shifted his focus on “national issues” with no interference in Uttar Pradesh politics.
Paras Nath made the same argument.
“Sinha ji is a man of rules and regulations. By no stretch of imagination, does he make any interference,” he said.
A teacher linked to the Samajwadi Party, who studied in the school where Sinha’s father was principal, believes that Paras Nath’s defeat in the 2024 election from Ghazipur, has “stunted Sinha’s stature”.
“He toured temples, did Ganga Arti in Ghazipur and Varanasi. Despite all this, they lost. He participated in many formal non-political events, but the reality is that he campaigned during the election,” said the teacher.
From student politics to parliament
Sinha was born in Mohanpura village in Ghazipur in 1959, in a Bhumihar family of big zamindars who owned large tracts of land and hailed from Bhagalpur district in Bihar. His father Virendra Nath Sinha was a school principal at the Narsingh Inter College. The senior Sinha was well-respected and used to travel in a jeep when not many owned cars, said an old-timer.
Sinha was a good student, scoring outstanding ranks in class 10 and 12 board exams. He went on to secure an M.Tech degree in Civil Engineering from the prestigious IIT-BHU. In 1982, when he was 23, he was elected as the BHU student’s union president as the candidate of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). Back in those days, campus politics played a greater role in mainstream politics, as manufacturing centres of future politicians.
It was in BHU, that Sinha came in touch with the ideas of Hindutva ideologues M.S. Golwalkar and V.D. Savarkar, who were among his initial icons. Golwalkar also taught in BHU for three years, earning the moniker Guruji and leaving a lasting impact on the psyche of the central varsity.
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At BHU, Sinha “developed a nationalist mindset,” said Yogendra Nath, adding that the varsity was the “powerhouse of nationalism”. Even today, Sinha cuts the image of an old-school politician, rooted in Hindu culturalism. He sports a tiny shika (tuft of hair) at the back of his head and wears a signature dhoti kurta as against the kurta pyjama and sadri (traditional jacket) or waistcoat donned by the average Uttar Pradesh politician.
Two Jana Sangh leaders, Kamlakant Chaubey and Bachan Singh (the founding district president), noticed potential in the young Sinha and urged him to contest the Lok Sabha election in 1984. Sinha was just 25 and still studying.
He finished fourth but left a mark as he recorded over 63,000 votes, among the highest secured by BJP candidates in the state. Sinha never contested any local body election or assembly election, making a huge leap from the student union to parliamentary politics.
“He was never willing to walk on the chota rasta (small paths),” said Yogendra Nath.
Yogendra Nath recalls that after Sinha lost his first election, he introduced him to Kalpnath Rai, a fellow Bhumihar leader and Congress MP who would leave a deep impact on the politics in the Mau-Ghosi belt. Kalpnath gave Sinha political advice, asking him to focus on door-to-door campaigns, said Nath.
“Ek din isi mein aana hain (have to come here only one day), Sinha ji told me, pointing at the parliament,” said Yogendra Nath.
But Sinha’s electoral career has not been that impressive. He has contested nine elections, from Ghazipur and Ballia, but won only thrice. He is also not considered a mass-mobiliser even though his supporters argue he is immensely popular due to his approachability and student politics background.
It is also held that though Sinha remained relevant during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee era, winning two elections then, his stature received a boost only after he was awarded with a position in the government under Modi.
After losing his first election despite a decent vote count, he lost again in 1991 to Vishwanath Shastri of the Communist Party of India (CPI) but secured a second spot. In the next election, in 1996, Sinha got his first victory with a comprehensive margin. This was followed by a defeat to Om Prakash Singh, today a senior Samajwadi Party leader, in 1998. But within a year, Sinha wrested back his seat from Singh in the 1999 polls, held during a period of political turmoil.
A missed opportunity
The big moment for him came in 2014 when Modi was elected as the prime minister. After winning in Ghazipur, Sinha was appointed railway minister, a post that defined much of his political heft in the Modi-era. Two years later, he also got the independent charge of the Ministry of Communications.
Then came the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly election, in which an ascendant BJP secured a thumping majority. The BJP didn’t decide on a chief ministerial face beforehand and till the last moment, Sinha, who enjoyed the goodwill of the prime minister, was considered to be the first choice to helm India’s most populous state. That would have taken Sinha’s political journey to another realm. But it turned out to be an anti-climax, as Adityanath, the saffron-clad priest-politician from Gorakhpur, roughly 150 kms north from Ghazipur, was appointed as the chief minister.
This came as a big disappointment to Sinha’s supporters, who had made all the arrangements to welcome the supposed chief minister-designate in Ghaizpur. Sinha himself visited the famous Kaal Bhairav and Kashi Vishwanath temples in Varanasi, as a gesture of gratitude that sent a message to his supporters that he was on his way to Lucknow next. The local administration in Ghazipur too made all the arrangements for a ceremonial welcome with all protocol when he visited a village in his native district hours before the BJP was to announce the chief minister.
Sinha’s associates said he was indeed disappointed by the turn of events adding that he never shared it beyond his closest circle.
“He is a serious politician. It was natural for him to feel disappointed but he never let anyone gauge his sentiment. He didn’t let it show on his face,” said Yogendra Nath.
There are many in the political circles of Uttar Pradesh who believe that though Sinha had the credentials and education to become a good administrator, he lacked the dynamism, oratory and aggression needed to push the ideological agenda of the RSS. Many imagine that he would not have been successful in building the image of a hardline Hindutva administrator through the “bulldozer” model of governance. There are others who feel he was burdened by the image of being a pro-Bhumihar leader, limiting the potential of his appeal pan-UP.
Divyendu Rai, a social activist who campaigned for Sinha in the past before being disillusioned by the party, said a powerful RSS leader Krishna Gopal, with whom Sinha did not enjoy the best of equations, was also opposed to his appointment as the chief minister.
Adding salt to the wounds, two years after that Sinha lost his seat in the 2019 parliamentary election to Afzal Ansari. But despite these two setbacks, he was sent to manage the turbid and volatile matters in Srinagar due to his proximity to Modi and his lieutenant Amit Shah.
The shift in Uttar Pradesh politics
In January 2021, when bureaucrat A.K. Sharma, considered close to Modi, took voluntary retirement and joined the BJP to enter politics in Uttar Pradesh, it “became clear the message was sent” that the central leadership didn’t want Sinha to play the role of a Bhumihar leader any longer, said a former journalist. Shifting Sinha out of the state would have also reduced possible tension over the question of leadership, he adds. Sharma, a Bhumihar from Mau, which abuts Ghazipur, is today a minister in the Adityanath cabinet.
Modi holds Sinha in high regard and in 2015 had even deputed him to spend a day every month at his MP office in Varanasi to ensure that people’s grievances were looked into. He has known Modi since the time the latter was a national general secretary of the BJP, said one source. This mutual admiration has spilled out in public on many occasions, with Modi referring to Sinha as his “chota bhai (younger brother)”.
In the 2022 assembly election, while campaigning in Uttar Pradesh, Modi said Ghazipur had produced a ratna (jewel) which was handling the mukut mani (crown jewel) of the country, Jammu and Kashmir.
In the 2024 parliamentary election, when Modi campaigned for Paras Nath, he couldn’t avoid Sinha’s mention.
“Ghazipur ka beta aaj Jammu and Kashmir ki kamaan sambhal raha hain (Ghazipur’s son is handling the affairs in Jammu and Kashmir),” Modi said at a rally.
It must be emphasised that Ghazipur is among those districts that sends a large number of young men to serve in the armed forces.
Ram Bahadur Rai factor
Senior journalist and RSS ideologue Ram Bahadur Rai (78), who hails from Ghazipur, was also instrumental in guiding Sinha’s political career, say his associates. Their relationship dates back to the 1980s and it is believed that Ram Bahadur brought him close to the BJP leadership over the years.
Ram Bahadur was appointed the chairperson of the prestigious Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and awarded the Padma Shri after Modi came to power. During his tenure at the IGNCA he was accused of turning the institution into a hub of RSS activities. In 2016, Ram Bahadur courted controversy after he described B.R. Ambedkar’s role in framing the Constitution as a “myth.”
“Ram Bahadur has been a margdarshak (guide) of sorts for Sinhaji and other karyakartas,” said Paras Nath.
Yogendra Nath too confirmed that Sinha enjoyed the “aashirwad (blessing)” of Ram Bahadur as he emerged on the national scene.
After becoming the LG, Sinha has attended several events with Ram Bahadur. In 2021, Sinha released Jawaharlal Kaul’s Jammu Kashmir: The Wounded Paradise in the presence of Ram Bahadur. In June 2022, he attended the launch of the book Indian Constitution – Untold Stories authored by Ram Bahadur himself. Sinha had congratulated him for “bringing to light many unknown and interesting facts” about the making of the Constitution.
Is Sinha (not) a development man?
In mainstream media, Sinha has often been depicted as a development man, who would defy caste equations and seek votes in the name of his achievements. A part of this is true, Ghazipur does not have a big population of Bhumihars even though they punch above their population.
During his tenure as a railway minister, new trains were started from Ghazipur or travelled through it and railway stations in the region were given a makeover. A railway bridge and road bridge over the Ganga and railway factories were counted among his achievements for local development.
“He once told me that whenever he visited Ghazipur, he would bring projects worth Rs 100 crore with him from the ministry,” said Yogendra Nath.
Over the years, Sinha has also tried to cultivate a vote base among marginalised Hindu communities, who make up the bulk of the voters in Ghazipur.
In 2016, he ended the Indian Railways tradition of naming trains without political considerations. The Suheldev Superfast Express train was named after the mythical Bihar chieftain, whom the Hindu right as for decades tried to promote as an anti-Muslim crusader to pit OBCs against Muslims. The train connects Ghazipur to Delhi.
The Rajbhars are a key caste constituency in and around Ghazipur region. The Telegraph had reported then, citing sources, that officials had protested when Sinha in 2015 proposed that the train be named after Suheldev. But after Sinha “got an endorsement from the Prime Minister’s Office,” the officials “had no choice,” the newspaper reported.
Sinha’s detractors feel that he didn’t do enough for the socio-economic welfare of the people despite enjoying power.
“The railway is a dikhne wala (visible) project. When a train moves, it is seen from afar. The development is visible. But he did nothing for Ghazipur except maybe build a Ganga Railway bridge. What about employment and education? Even till date, Ghazipur doesn’t have an engineering college,” said a Samajwadi Party leader.
A former journalist who covered the railways in Delhi when Sinha was a minister, said he did a decent job in the first two years but pointed out that he also favoured people of his community while making appointments in both private and secretariat staff roles.
Divyendu alleged that when Sinha was a minister, railway and optical fiber project contracts were given to Thakurs.
Sinha has mostly evaded controversies and maintains a guarded political image. He doesn’t have criminal cases against him, even though he operated in the volatile grounds of Purvanchal where crime and politics often intermingle. Those close to him say he is serious and straightforward and likes to take a practical approach to things. One of those times when he did court a controversy with his words was in April 2019, when he threatened that anyone who points a finger at a BJP worker would find himself paying with their finger in just “four hours.”
The rivalry with Ansari brothers, a murder and its aftermath
The 2004 parliamentary election was the year when Sinha’s famous electoral rivalry with Afzal, the present Samajwadi Party MP and elder brother of the deceased Mukhtar Ansari, a controversial figure stained with criminal charges, started. Sinha lost by a massive margin of 2.27 lakh votes, among the highest in the state that year and the highest in Ghazipur ever.
A year later, Sinha received a bigger setback after BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai, a close friend and fellow Bhumihar, was murdered. That event continues to cast a shadow on the politics of Purvanchal till date. Krishnanand had defeated Afzal in the 2002 assembly election for Mohammabad seat in Ghazipur, held by Afzal five times, four times as a candidate of the CPI.
Krishanand’s widow Alka Rai, who would go on to become an MLA defeating Afzal’s elder brother Sigbatullah Ansari in 2017, accused the Ansari brothers, Mukhtar and Afzal, of scripting the murder.
Though in 2019, a special CBI court in Delhi acquitted Mukhtar, Afzal and five others in the murder case, the BJP government in power continued to hold them guilty in the public eye.
In March, Mukhtar, convicted in other cases, died in Banda jail under mysterious circumstances. While his family alleged he was poisoned by the ruling dispensation, the government described it as a death caused by heart attack.
Sinha contested the 2009 Lok Sabha election from Ballia, after the Mohammadabad assembly segment, where his native village was located, was shifted out of Ghazipur Lok Sabha constituency as part of delimitation. He finished third.
Sinha’s relationship with Krishnanand also dates back to his time in the BHU and Varanasi.
Yogendra Nath describes them as “strong friends” who would often roam Varanasi on a scooter. While Sinha was the neta (leader), Krishnanand was the thekedar (contractor), added Nath.
But soon enough, in 1996, Krishnanand too entered electoral politics through Sinha’s influence. But he lost his first election to Afzal in Mohammadabad only to exact revenge in 2002.
Krishnanand’s murder in 2005 triggered a new wave of animosity between the Bhumihar leadership of the BJP and the Ansaris, who had already developed a long-standing business and political rivalry with the landed caste leaders in the region.
The murder was also a personal blow to Sinha. While one source claims they are related through their sons’ wives, a leader from Ghazipur, though unsure of the familial connection, quipped:
“I don’t know if they are related. They were definitely close. But what can be a bigger rishta (relation) than jati (caste)?”
Over the years, Sinha has continued to attend events held to remember Krishnanand’s murder. On November 29, 2017, speaking at a “Shahadat Diwas” or Martyrdom Day event in Ghazipur, Sinha said that Krishnanand’s death would “not go in vain” and promised that the killers would be brought to justice, since the BJP was now in power.
Paras Nath further said that Sinha also supported Krishnanand’s family in its long legal battle, which continues till date.
“He helped them, that too openly. He would say, till I send them to my friend I will not sit in peace,” said Paras Nath.
Since the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh, Mukhtar and his family have publicly alleged on several occasions that Sinha was part of a group of politicians and officials who were planning to kill him in jail or in a fake encounter.
In December 2023, Umar Ansari, Mukhtar’s younger son, raised this concern in a petition he filed in the Supreme Court apprehending threat to his father’s life from the Adityanath government.
On March 21, days before Mukhtar died, he had filed an application in a court in Mau alleging that Sinha, MLC Brijesh Singh, MLA Sushil Singh and some top officials of the Adityanath government were planning to murder him and had made all the arrangements to protect the killers.
Though Yogendra Nath dismisses the rivalry between Afzal and Sinha calling them merely “political opponents,” the bad blood was evident in the recently held election.
Paras Nath even went to the extent of calling Mukhtar a “terrorist”. Eventually, Afzal, riding on his popular support and sympathy garnered over his brother’s death and the overall sentiments against the BJP, defeated Sinha’s man Paras Nath by almost 1.25 lakh votes.
The BJP perhaps banked on the fact that the Allahabad high court would dismiss Afzal’s appeal and disqualify him from election after he had been held guilty in a Gangsters case last year linked to Krishnanand’s murder. That didn’t happen. The court reserved the judgement and when it finally delivered it on July 27, after the results and oath-taking, acquitted Afzal, almost two months after he had won the election. That meant, Afzal will continue to be an MP.
The BJP also lost the neighbouring seat of Ballia, where Sinha’s village Mohanpura is located. A source said, the party lost one out of the two booths in the village.
Paras Nath said he was surprised that he was picked as a candidate from Ghazipur as he expected Sinha’s son Abhinav, who was also lobbying, to get it.
He said the RSS took a call that he would be the candidate and in a coordination meeting informed him that he would be freed of his Sangh duties of handling affairs in Ghazipur and Jaunpur to enter the electoral ring.
“It was purely the role of the organisation. I had not asked for the ticket. I didn’t have any inclination. I was close to Sinhaji and used to see his election. Therefore, people started drawing this conclusion,” said Paras Nath.
He said that the perception that the BJP would change the Constitution if it wins more than 400 seats, hurt his prospects as well as of other BJP candidates. In the Jangipur Vidhan Sabha segment alone, Paras Nath said in 70 booths the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) received votes in single digits, showing the large-scale shift of its core Jatav voters to the Samajwadi Party.
The defeat has created a vacuum in leadership for the BJP in Ghazipur as its tallest leader, Sinha, continues to serve hundreds of miles away in Srinagar. Coming back to 2016, in his speech to youth workers of the BJP, Sinha said that the party held significance not because of how big the size of its organisation was but by whether it won or lost in the elections. The 2024 election must have given him plenty of food for thought.