Madan Bhaiya

Madan Lal, popularly known as Madan Bhaiya, is an Indian politician. Bhaiya is a fifth-term member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (1991–1993, 1993–1996, 2002–2007, 2007–2012, 2022–present) and he represents the Khatauli Assembly constituency. He has been linked to gang violence and has faced multiple alleged murder charges. He travels in a bulletproof car along with 2–3 pilot cars containing his security detail. Bhaiya previously served four terms as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the Khekada Assembly constituency of Baghpat district.

Early life Bhaiya was born to Bhuleram Lal, a lawyer and patwari by profession, and Hoseyari Devi on 11 September 1959, in Jawli, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. His village is amongst the biggest villages in Loni, Ghaziabad. The majority of the population in Jawli belongs to the Brahmin ethnic group.

He was born into an affluent family and is the only child of his parents. He was notorious among locals for being involved in fights in his youth and was very active in student politics when he entered college, He dropped out of the college after completing his first year as he was already suspended nine times in a single year either for fighting or openly threatening the college staffers and teachers. He fought for the rights of students in college and staff members too started calling him as “Bhaiya Ji“.

In college, due to his "domineering nature", older students and teachers started to refer to him as or instead of his birth name. To register under the name, he had to furnish an affidavit of name change before filing his candidate nomination for the election.

Conflict with D. P. Yadav

Bhaiya confronted D. P. Yadav and got into a physical scuffle with him, by slapping and abusing him in Vidhan Bhavan, Lucknow in the presence of hundreds of other legislators, after the latter was accused of murdering Dadri Assembly constituency MLA and Yadav's political guru Mahendra Singh Bhati in September 1992.

Khekada was the largest constituency of Uttar Pradesh until 2008, when delimitation led to boundary changes and the creation of the new constituencies of Sahibabad and Loni. Both of these constituencies share their borders with Delhi, and the remaining area of the Khekada constituency was merged with the Baghpat, Muradnagar, and Baraut constituencies.

After delimitation, Bhaiya contested from the Loni constituency, but lost to the Bahujan Samaj Party candidate in the 2012 election. In the 2017 election, he lost to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Nand Kishor Gurjar, and in the 2022 election he garnered 118,734 votes but lost by a margin of 8,676 votes to Gurjar.

Bhaiya won for the fifth time as an MLA in the 2022 by-election of Khatauli Assembly constituency, which was prompted by the incumbent Vikram Singh Saini being disqualified due to charges related to the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. Bhaiya defeated BJP candidate Rajkumari Saini, Vikram's wife, with a margin of over 22,000 votes.

Assassination attempts There have been several failed attempts to murder Madan Bhaiya. In September 2001, a plot to murder him at his home was foiled by his personal security guards, as four assailants entered his farmhouse in Jawli and tried to murder him by shooting him in the public meeting area inside the farmhouse. All four of them ran away after they saw Bhaiya was unhurt, and due to the presence of his armed security guards.

His supporters supposedly sliced the dead bodies of assailants into two parts with sharp objects. On that day none of the households in Jawli village lit their chulahs, as a mark of respect towards Bhaiya. a history-sheeter and resident of Gokal Pur, Delhi who had been accused of involvement in the kidnapping of renowned industrialist Swatantra Rastogi from New Delhi for a ransom of ₹50,000,000 on 11 July 1999. Pehalwan was gunned down in an encounter with the Delhi Police related to the kidnapping on 24 July 1999, while he was trying to escape by car from the parking area of the Ashok Hotel in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.

On the same day, Pehalwan's brother lodged a complaint at a police station in Gokal Pur, accusing Bhaiya and three others of kidnapping his nephew and the other three deceased persons from Gokal Pur and later murdering them in Jawli, Ghaziabad. The case is still . In 2003, a warrant for Bhaiya's arrest was issued after he failed to answer bail.

Bhaiya also celebrates International Gurjar Day on 22 March with thousands of his supporters by organising a rally in his native area.

Bhaiya belongs to the Gurjar community but is also known among the Jat community of Baghpat, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and nearby districts. During the height of his involvement with organized crime, his gang had more Jat members than any other caste, as he trusted them with his life.

Bhaiya is also a follower of Maharishi Valmiki, and every year during Valmiki's birth anniversary he organises several programs in his area to make people aware of Valmiki's contributions to Sanātana Dharma and to the eradication of untouchability from society.