Raja Ram Singh Kushwaha

Raja Ram Singh or Raja Ram Singh Kushwaha, is an Indian politician based in Bihar, who was elected to Bihar Legislative Assembly twice, from Obra Assembly constituency in Aurangabad district. He is a member of Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation. He was first elected in 1995 and retained this constituency in 2000 Bihar Legislative Assembly elections. He is also a politburo member of CPI(ML)L. In 2024 Indian general election, he defeated Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh with a margin of over one lakh votes to win Karakat Lok Sabha constituency. He stood first in the triangular electoral contest involving National Democratic Alliance candidate and Rashtriya Lok Morcha president, Upendra Kushwaha and Pawan Singh.

Life
Raja Ram Singh was born to Deepan Singh in Ekauni Village of the Aurangabad district of Bihar in a Koeri family. The son of a marginal farmer, Singh was a social worker before joining politics and his spouse is a principle of Primary School Railways. He has completed his degree of civil engineering from Bihar College of Engineering, which came to be known as National Institute of Technology, Patna later. However, he never pursued a career in engineering and joined Indian People's Front. By 1980s, he was a significant leader of the IPF.

Later, he remained associated with CPI-ML party and contested the state legislative assembly elections in 1995 on its symbol. He managed to win that election and repeated his electoral victory in 2000 Bihar Legislative Assembly elections. He again contested from this constituency in 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly elections. In this election, he finished in third position with 22,801 votes. Birendra Kumar Sinha of Rashtriya Janata Dal, who won this election from the Obra constituency and Chandra Bhushan Verma of Rashtriya Lok Samata Party were the winners and first runner-up. He also contested elections to Lok Sabha in 2009, 2014 and 2019, but in all these elections, his performance remained poor.

In 2012, he was also imprisoned in connection with demonstration organised by him and his party members against the murder of Mukhiya of Sonhathu Panchayat of Haspura block, Devendra Kumar. They were arrested while organising demonstration to demand Central Bureau of Investigation enquiry into the case.

Singh is also one of the prominent leader of farmer's movement in India. He is the state chief of All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee for the states of Bihar and Jharkhand, besides being a member of politburo of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) liberation. He is also the national secretary of All India Kisan Mahasabha, a peasant right organisation.

In 2020-21, he led a procession from Bihar to Delhi-Punjab border in the support of peasant agitators, who were opposing the three farm laws that were passed by Narendra Modi government. These bills, which were later scrapped, were branded as against farmers by the agitators. He has also consistently demanded the restoration of Agricultural Produce Market Committees, which were disbanded by Bihar government.

Singh was made a candidate for 2024 Indian general elections from Karakat Lok Sabha constituency against Rashtriya Lok Morcha president Upendra Kushwaha, who contested as an ally of Bhartiya Janata Party. In this election, he faced a triangular contest with the entry of Bhojpuri singer and actor Pawan Singh, who denied BJP's symbol from Asansol to contest from Karakat constituency. It was speculated in political discourse that Pawan Singh will be able to collect a major chunk of Rajput votes in the electoral contest between two Koeri leaders.

After the final counting of votes Raja Ram Singh clinched an easy victory by defeating Pawan Singh with a fair margin of over one lakh votes. For his election campaigns and election expenses, Raja Ram, like his party colleague Sudama Prasad relied on donation from the public. They got twenty lakh coupons of ₹ 20 each printed by their party and travelled door to door to meet the voters requesting them to donate. With these minimal resources and lack of helicopters to expedite their election campaign, their workers travelled on bicycles and two wheelers to connect with the ordinary people. The result was surprisingly positive for both Raja Ram and Prasad, who were able to defeat National Democratic Alliance heavyweights R. K. Singh and Upendra Kushwaha, besides Bhojpuri actor Pawan Singh.