Tough time ahead for mafia turned politician in Chillupar seat

Chillupar, Gorakhpur, May 5 (UNI) Hari Shankar Tiwari, one of the early Eastern Uttar Pradesh mafias to don the 'khadi' to enter politics, may have faced many a successful battle with criminals but this time around he is having a tough fight at the assembly poll contest.

The UP minister, also a heavyweight of the region, who first dominated the mafia scene and then the political arena, has in past hardly found anyone worthy being his opponent but the same cannot be said about the May 8 assembly polling on Chillupar seat.

Tiwari is finding his record seventh entry into the state legislature is definitely much more tougher than the last elections.

Surprisingly, the resistance facing him is neither from the criminals nor from the hard core politicians but from the common men and echoing their sentiments is a pen pusher who also happens to be a United States based scientist. Dr Raja Vashishtha Tripathi, along with his team of scientists has waged a war against Mafiosi.

Hari Shankar Tiwari,UP Loktrantrik Congress candidate from this Brahamin dominated constituency, is having sleepless nights over the challenge posed mainly by BSP candidate Rajesh Tripathi till recently working with a local Hindi daily. He is one of the 86 Brahamin candidates the BSP President Mayawati has given tickets in the UP assembly polls, 2007.

Rajesh Tripathi's popularity coupled with the earnest desire of the people to get rid of criminalization in politics has made Hari Shankar Tiwari's journey to the state assembly rather difficult. His social service in the constituency has won him many admirers and his position is further strengthened by a simmering feeling of the electorate to shun criminals and ignite development.

Never before in his political career spanning over two decades, has Tiwari faced the opposition of this magnitude. The eastern UP had witnessed a lot of bloodshed due to fight between various mafia gangs which followed Tiwari's entry into the state assembly in 1985 as an independent candidate.

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