THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Dhanbad, July 29: One of the ministers of Jharkhand’s first cabinet and trade union leader Bachha Singh (80) breathed his last at Dhanbad Binod Bihari Mahto Chowk-based Super Specialty Hospital on Monday afternoon.
Family members said he had been ill for a few months and was getting treatment in Delhi. Recently he had returned from Delhi and today at 12.30 pm breathed his last at the hospital in Dhanbad.
He had deep family relations with former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar as they belonged to Balia of Uttar Pradesh.
In the 1999 Bihar assembly election Bachha Singh won from the Jharia constituency on Samta Party (Nitish Kumar) ticket and in 2000 became urban development minister in the first Jharkhand government formed under Babulal Marandi of the BJP after the separation of the state.
In the 2004 assembly election, he was denied a ticket from the Jharia seat as his sister-in-law Kunti Devi became a BJP candidate and won. Bachha Singh resigned from the Samta Party and joined Rashtriya Janata Dal (Lalu Prasad) and contested from the Bokaro assembly seat but lost to Samresh Singh. In 2009, he joined the BJP.
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Hero of anti-domicile policy of Babulal Marandi
Bachha Singh was the hero of the anti-domicile policy announced by Chief Minister Babulal Marandi in 2003. Singh became the messiah of the non-Jharkhand-born people of the state and raised the banner of revolt against it which finally caused the downfall of the Marandi government and paved the path for the Arjun Munda-led state government.
Lost elections in the early stage
After the death of his elder brother and the then Jharia sitting MLA late Suryadeo Singh, Bachha Singh contested a by-election on his family seat ( Jharia) but lost to Abo Devi of the Janata Dal (Lalu Prasad) in 1994. He again contested and lost.
Veteran trade union leader
After the death of Suryadeo Singh, Bachha Singh took the helm of the Janata Mazdoor Sangh (JMS), a dominant trade union in the coalfield. But as former MLA Kunti Singh and her son Sanjiv Singh (former MLA) became active, Bachha Singh was sidelined with a section of family members and ran a parallel union.
Bachha Singh had no issue. Present Jharia Congress MLA Purnima Singh is his daughter-in-law (wife of his younger brother’s son).
