Prabhunath Singh is a politician from

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

, India and was a member of the 12th, 13th and

14th Lok Sabha The 14th Lok Sabha (17 May 2004 – 18 May 2009) was convened after the 2004 Indian general election held in four phases during 20 April – 10 May 2004, which led to the formation of first Manmohan Singh ministry (2004–2009). Indian Nationa ...

. Singh represented the Masrakh assembly constituency from 1985 to 1995, and the Maharajganj Lok Sabha constituency of Bihar from 1998 to 2009. In 2013, he won the bypoll and remained as MP until 2014. Singh is a member of the

Rashtriya Janata Dal The Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD; translation: ''National People's Party'') is an Indian political party, based in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Kerala. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav. The party's support base has tradit ...

(RJD).

Background family and education

Singh was born in

Mashrakh Mashrakh is a Block and town of Saran District in the western part of Bihar, India. It is located on the right bank of Ghoghari river. It is situated at 40 km from Chhapra and 98 km from state capital Patna. There are 17 Panchayats in Ma ...

, Saran district,

. He studied until class-12 from Bihar University,

Muzaffarpur Muzaffarpur () is a city located in Muzaffarpur district in the Tirhut region of the Indian state of Bihar. It serves as the headquarters of the Tirhut division, the Muzaffarpur district and the Muzaffarpur Railway District. It is the fourth m ...

in 1972. His brothers Dina Singh, Madan Singh and Kedar Singh are also politicians. He is married to Binda Devi. His son, Randhir Kumar Singh, is also a politician and lost in the

2019 Indian general election General elections were held in India in seven phases from 11 April to 19 May 2019 to elect the members of the 17th Lok Sabha. Votes were counted and the result was declared on 23 May. Around 912 million people were eligible to vote, and voter ...

Janardan Singh Sigriwal Janardhan Singh Sigriwal is an Indian politician of Bharatiya Janata Party. He is a member of the 17th Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Parliament of India) representing Maharajganj (Bihar Lok Sabha constituency). Earlier He won Bihar assem ...

of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

(BJP).

Career

Before entering into politics, Singh owned a

brick-making A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made), often with a quarry for cl ...

factory. He won his first election for MLA as an independent candidate due to his support among

Rajputs Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

from his area. He is a four time

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

from the Saran district. In the 1995 elections, he ran as a member of BJP, but left for the

Janata Dal (United) Janata Dal (United) ("People’s Party (United)”) abbreviated as JD(U) is an Indian political party with political presence mainly in eastern and north-eastern India. JD(U) is recognised as a state party in the states of Bihar , Arunachal Pra ...

(JD(U)) party after losing. Singh won election as a member of the JD(U) party, but later joined RJD due to dictatorship of

Nitish Kumar Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician, who is serving as Chief Minister of Bihar since 22 February 2015, having previous held the office from 2005 to 2014 and for a short period in 2000. The leader of the Janata Dal (Unite ...

in JD(U). He represented the Maharajganj constituency of Bihar from 2004 to 2009 on the JD(U) ticket. In 2009, he contested on the JD(U) ticket, but narrowly lost to Uma Shankar Singh of RJD. After the death of Uma Shankar Singh, whose seat was now vacant, Singh contested on the RJD ticket, defeating JD(U)'s nominee P.K. Shahi.

Conviction and controversies

On 23 May 2017, Singh was sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

by the Hazaribagh

Court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...

for his connection with the murder of MLA Ashok Singh 22 years prior.

Positions held

Prabhunath Singh had been elected as MLA twice, and as

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

MP four times.

References

Home Page on the Parliament of India's Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Prabhunath 1953 births Living people India MPs 1998–1999 India MPs 1999–2004 India MPs 2004–2009 India MPs 2009–2014 Indian politicians convicted of murder Indian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Janata Dal politicians Janata Dal (United) politicians Lok Sabha members from Bihar People from Chhapra Rashtriya Janata Dal politicians Samata Party politicians United Progressive Alliance candidates in the 2014 Indian general election