THE CURIOUS CLOUT OF RAM BAI
She is from the badlands of Bundelkhand in Madhya Pradesh. Her family allegedly controls not only lucrative businesses but also official transfers and postings in the state. Government privileges are a given for her irrespective of the party in power. Meet Patharia MLA Ram Bai, whose unfettered clout in the previous Kamal Nath-led Congress government continues under the new BJP dispensation. What makes this Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader so crucial to any ruling formation in the state and why does every government give her the long rope?
One of the reasons for Ram Bai’s influence is the way numbers are stacked up in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly. In the 2018 assembly election, the Congress, with 114 MLAs, emerged as the singlelargest party and formed the government with the support of ‘Others’—one MLA of the Samajwadi Party (SP), four Independents and the two BSP legislators, including Ram Bai.
Her support critical to the survival of the Nath government, Ram Bai, 40, soon began asserting herself. Videos surfaced of the lawmaker purportedly threatening officials with dire consequences if her ‘demands’ were not met. The Nath government allotted her a ‘B’ type bungalow, usually meant for ministers and senior bureaucrats. But Ram Bai’s real brush with infamy was yet to come.
On March 15, 2019, Devendra Chaurasia, a businessman and local politician from Hatta town in Damoh district, was murdered at his bitumen plant on the outskirts of Hatta. The Damoh zilla panchayat member had switched over from the BSP to the Congress three days before his death. Ram Bai’s husband Govind, her brother-in-law Chandu, nephew Golu and cousin Lokesh were among the seven booked for the murder. Ram Bai terms it a political conspiracy against her.
As the investigation began, police dropped Govind’s name from the chargesheet on the basis of mobile tower location data, which reportedly did not show his phone to be anywhere near the murder site. Two witnesses also gave statements that suggested Govind was elsewhere at the time of the murder. The accused family members of Ram Bai, who had gone absconding, later surrendered. Govind and Chandu have a long criminal record—some 50 cases altogether. They have been convicted in a triple murder case and sentenced to life terms. Both were out on bail at the time of Chaurasia’s murder. Ram Bai too has cases against her, on charges of criminal intimidation, rioting, trespassing and voluntarily causing hurt.
The month before his murder,
Chaurasia had brought a no-confidence motion against Shivcharan Patel, the Damoh zilla panchayat president. This was allegedly prompted by local politics involving a Union minister and a senior BJP leader from the area. Ram Bai, who was formerly vice-president of the panchayat, had supported Patel. The motion was defeated, but Chaurasia is thought to have earned the wrath of Ram Bai’s family.
This March, the BJP took the reins of power from the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. With 107 MLAs of its own and 27 vacant seats in the assembly— due to desertions by 25 legislators from the Congress and the death of two other lawmakers—the BJP has a majority government. But this has not diminished Ram Bai’s sway as she was among the MLAs who were part of the coup against the Nath government.
In early March, Ram Bai was flown to Delhi by BJP MLAs and put up at a hotel in Gurugram. Videos of then Congress ministers Jaivardhan Singh and Jitu Patwari getting her back to Bhopal had circulated on social media. Ram Bai had then denied supporting the BJP and said she had gone to meet her daughter in Delhi. When the Nath government eventually fell, she declared support for the BJP and claimed to have been promised a ministerial berth. While that did not materialise, Ram Bai voted for BJP candidates in the Rajya Sabha polls in June.
The BJP continues to humour Ram Bai even though it is comfortably placed in the state assembly. And here’s why. Though the BJP has 107 seats and the Congress is continuously suffering attrition in its ranks, the saffron
RAM BAI’S SUPPORT WOULD BE CRUCIAL FOR THE BJP TO REMAIN IN POWER IF IT WINS LESS THAN NINE OF THE 27 SEATS IN BYPOLLS
party seems to have decided to proceed with caution till the by-elections to the 27 vacant assembly seats are over. The BJP needs to win at least nine of these seats to remain in power. The Congress, however, needs to win all 27 to return to power and form a government on its own.
There is a third possible scenario. In case the BJP wins less than nine seats and the Congress more than 18, either party will need the support of seven MLAs. This support will come from the ranks of the Independents, the BSP and the SP. In such a scenario, Ram Bai’s support will again be crucial to keep either formation in power. In case the BJP wins more than nine seats and forms a government with a comfortable majority, Ram Bai’s run of good luck may end.
The BSP lawmaker recently faced some challenge from unexpected quarters when Siddharth Malaiya, a BJP leader from Damoh and also the son of former state finance minister Jayant Malaiya, spoke out against her in the Chaurasia murder case. He joined Chaurasia’s son Somesh for a press conference and announced a bandh in Hatta, which was successful.
Then, in June, the Chaurasia murder case turned murkier. Kamal Ahirwar, a youth from the Scheduled Caste community, accused members of the Chaurasia clan of an attempt to
waylay and murder him over an alleged property dispute between the two families. Four members of the deceased businessman’s family were booked in the case. Interestingly, Ahirwar’s mother Vidya Rani was one of the witnesses in the Chaurasia murder case. Her statement led the police to conclude that Ram Bai’s husband was not at the site of Chaurasia’s murder.
Perhaps in an indication of Ram Bai’s continuing influence even after a change of government in the state, the Damoh police refused to investigate a potential link between the Ahirwar family and Govind. The police also detained two relatives of the Chaurasia family apparently to bring pressure on the others named in the Ahirwar case to surrender. They were later released. On August 13, the Chaurasia family’s stand was vindicated when the Madhya Pradesh High Court restrained the Damoh police from taking any coercive action against them till the next hearing.
“The attempt to murder and SC/ST Atrocities Act cases against my family members are meant to pressure them to not pursue my father’s murder case,” alleges Chaurasia’s son Somesh. “We have filed a case in the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Damoh against the police discharging Ram Bai’s husband Govind in the murder case. A ruling is awaited.”
Ram Bai claims this is all part of a political witch-hunt. In her defence, she says: “The Devendra Chaurasia case is sub judice, so I would not like to comment on it. Chaurasia had been unwell for some time. The Chaurasia family has named close to 30 people in the case. But for someone to have been killed, no weapons have been found.” She also targets Jayant Malaiya. “I am aware Jayant Malaiya is behind whatever is happening. But I believe in the court of God and know that justice will be done in the end,” she says.