In Purvanchal politics, there has been one person who has built his influence in the government of every political party and has stayed influential in the area for a long period. Not only that, but he has also promoted several members of his family to positions of power, including MLAs and MPs. Uttar Pradesh ganglord turned politician, and now Samajwadi Party member Hari Shankar Tiwari is the name of the man who moved from crime to politics, and if there was another centre of power in Gorakhpur besides Gorakhnath Math, it was his sprawling mansion, ‘Hata.’ (Tiwari’s house as referred by local people).
Hari Shankar Tiwari dominated UP politics for a long time, other family members also held important positions
Hari Shankar Tiwari competed for and won the Chillupar Assembly Constituency as an independent candidate in the 1985 elections. Following that, he ran for Congress and won in 1989, 1991, and 1993. He won for the fifth time on the ‘All India Indira Congress (Tiwari)’ ticket. In 2002, he won the same constituency for the sixth time in a row on the ticket of the ‘All India Democratic Congress.’ In 2017, he secured a BSP ticket for his son Vinay Shankar Tiwari and made him an MLA from this seat.
Meanwhile, his second son, Bhishma Shankar Tiwari, was elected as an MP from Sant Kabir Nagar on a Samajwadi Party ticket. From 2009 until 2014, he served in the Lok Sabha as a Member of Parliament. Hari Shankar Tiwari’s repute has been that of a notorious gangster. Tanda, Chillupar is where he was born and raised. He earned the title of being the first gangster to win an election while sitting in jail. He used to be regarded as Uttar Pradesh’s most powerful “Brahmin face”, and had founded the ‘All India Democratic Congress’ with other politicians in 1997.
Whether it was Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav or Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta or Rajnath Singh, or even Mayawati, he served in all of these regimes as a minister. Ganesh Shankar Pandey, his nephew, rose through the ranks of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council to become Chairman.
Let’s go back in time to when Purvanchal was considered an epicentre of gang wars. Hari Shankar Tiwari’s career in politics began in the 1980s. For years, he remained the only constant in the ever-changing UP political landscape. However, in the 2007 and 2012 elections, he was defeated in his stronghold.
Beginning of crime in Purvanchal and gang war between mafia
This was the time in Purvanchal when the task of identifying youths and bringing them into the world of crime began. The more energetic and dynamic the youth was, the more likely he ought to be recruited by a mafia group. Harishankar Tiwari claims that he had no choice but to enter politics when then-Chief Minister Veer Bahadur Singh imprisoned him after filing a fake case against him. He was already a member of the Congress and had worked with Indira Gandhi previously.
In the 1980s, he was charged with 26 different crimes. Murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, extortion, and hindering government activity were among the offences, Tiwari was involved in. However, until today, Tiwari has not been convicted in any of the cases filed against him.
In Purvanchal, the 1980s were a time when tenders were released for a wide range of development projects, and criminals contended for them. Hari Shankar Tiwari gradually began to take over the entire Purvanchal’s contracts.
He made his own rule to rule over every department, from railways, coal supply, and mining to liquor. His clout was such that he established a ‘Robinhood’ image among the masses. Despite allegations after allegations kept re-surfacing against him, Tiwari continued to reach the assembly by winning again and again and becoming a minister.
He is now 85 years old and has not competed since his defeat in 2012. In Gorakhpur’s Jatashankar neighbourhood, he owns a fort-like home. Most decisions in Purvanchal were made by holding a court in his ‘Hata.’
There was a time when it was said that the fortune of whichever political party Tiwari associated with changed. His clout spread from Ghazipur to Varanasi, but Harishankar Tiwari started it all in Gorakhpur. At the time, Gorakhpur was engulfed in caste violence. People still hold them responsible for criminalization in colleges and universities. It was then, the contract killer, active during the 1990s mainly in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Sriprakash Shukla was also born.
It is believed that the astute Hari Shankar Tiwari specialized in carrying out criminal activities from behind the scenes rather than taking the initiative from the front. During those days, a new war between Rajputs and Brahmins had also erupted in his region. However, due to his wily intelligence, he remained ingratiated with all political parties. He rose through the ranks of the mafia to become a political ‘Pandit ji’ in Uttar Pradesh.
Prior to his imprisonment in 1985, Tiwari had won an election as an independent candidate and that too by a very large margin. Harishankar Tiwari was still in Jagdambika Pal’s cabinet when the latter became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for a day.
The gang war may have ended and guns have fallen silent in the UP’s badland, yet the gory tales of two warlords Hari Shankar Tiwari and Virendra Pratap Shahi, who fought with each other for over two decades have acquired the status of folklore. Owing to the deadly gang war between the duo, the region earned the sobriquet of ‘Chicago of the East’ and ‘Slice of Sicily’.
The two criminals, Hari Shanker Tiwari and Virendra Pratap Shahi, and their associates, carried out around 50 murders in their quest for supremacy. It is believed that Virendra Shahi had also benefited from the Math’s assistance. In 1997, however, Shahi was assassinated by Sriprakash Shukla. Notably, it was during this period that the Gangster Act was enacted for the very first time to keep both of them in check.
When Yogi Adityanath government went against Tiwari’s empire
The current scenario is such that Tiwari and his family have no specific political clout. However, in December last year, the Tiwari clan had joined the Samajwadi Party, after BSP supremo Mayawati ousted Vinay and Kushal Tiwari on the charges of being involved in anti-party activities. It was believed that the Tiwari family could make its way into the SP camp, as the party saw it as an opportunity to woo Brahmin voters, given that the Tiwari family still has a massive political influence amongst the Brahmin vote bank in Purvanchal.
Despite his influence and political connections, Hari Shankar Tiwari could not survive the crackdown against the mafia that began after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s government took control of the reins of Uttar Pradesh. Tiwari’s home was raided by officers from five different police stations. The search was linked to Rs 98 lakh being looted from the cashier of a private firm in Gorakhpur’s Khorabar area on March 13, 2017.
According to reports, one Chhotu Choubey, who was arrested in the case had named some Sonu Pathak. The location of Pathak was found at Hari Shankar Tiwari’s house. It was then, a raid was conducted at his home based on this information.
During the investigation, police had found out that cashier Ajay Pratap was behind the loot. Following this, Ajay Pratap and three others were arrested. Police recovered Rs 31 lakh of the booty. Those arrested reportedly told the police that the remaining Rs 67 lakh was with Chhotu Chaubey. When police started a search for Chhotu, he surrendered in court in an old case.
Interestingly, the Tiwari family had made this raid into a political agenda to target the Yogi Government. Tiwari had even taken to the streets to protest against the action taken by the Yogi Government. Many police officials had to be deployed then due to the huge ruckus created by Tiwari and his loyalists. This, however, could not hold back the Yogi Adityanath administration, who also conducted raids on the premises of Tiwari’s son and BSP MLA Vijay Shankar Tiwari in October 2020.
The raid was conducted in connection with a bank loan fraud amounting to Rs 754.24 crores. The CBI has registered an FIR on a complaint from the Bank of India against two private companies- Gangotri Enterprises, Royal Empire Marketing Limited based at Lucknow and Noida its Directors and unknown others on the allegations of committing misappropriation, cheating and causing loss of Rs. 754.24 crore.
The FIR lodged by the anti-corruption bureau of the CBI Delhi unit also names its Directors- Vinay Shankar Tiwari, Ajeet Pandey, and Reeta Tiwari.
Searches were conducted at the premises of the accused/company at Noida and Lucknow which had also led to the recovery of several incriminating documents.
