Raja Ram Pal (born 20 November 1960) is an Indian politician with the

Samajwadi Party The Samajwadi Party ( SP; translation: ''Socialist Party'', founded 4 October 1992) is a Socialism, socialist political party in India, headquartered in New Delhi but mainly based in Uttar Pradesh, with significant presence in other states as w ...

, and was a member of the

15th Lok Sabha Members of the 15th Lok Sabha were elected during the 2009 general election in India. It was dissolved on 18 May 2014 by President Pranab Mukherjee. Indian National Congress-led United Progressive Alliance won 44 more seats than the previou ...

from

Akbarpur (Lok Sabha constituency) Akbarpur Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 80 Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituencies in Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. This constituency came into existence in 2008 as a part of the implementation of delimitation of parliamentary ...

. Earlier, as a member of the

Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a national level political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), alon ...

(BSP), he had been a member of the

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 ...

from

Bilhaur Bilhaur is a town and a municipal board in Kanpur Nagar district which is situated in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is 56 km from Kanpur and situated where the Isan River joins the River Ganges. Araul is nearest village of Bilhau ...

, before being expelled on 23 December 2005, along with ten others, after the sting

Operation Duryodhana {{unreferenced, date=July 2015 Operation Duryodhana (2005) was the code name of a sting operation, which captured on camera eleven members of Parliament of India accepting money to table questions on the floor of the Parliament. Description This w ...

. The expulsion was

sub judice In law, ''sub judice'', Latin for "under a judge", means that a particular case or matter is under trial or being considered by a judge or court. The term may be used synonymously with "the present case" or "the case at bar" by some lawyers. I ...

when the 14th Lok Sabha finished its term.

Life

The son of Ram Nath Pal and Rukmani Devi, Raja Ram was born in the town

Sirohi Sirohi is a city, located in Sirohi district in southern Rajasthan state in western India. It is the administrative headquarters of Sirohi District and was formerly the capital of the princely state of Sirohi ruled by Deora Chauhan Rajput rul ...

and attended D.A.V. College,

Kanpur Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation (help·info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military stations o ...

. After his

LLB Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the China, People's Republic ...

, he joined the law profession. In 1996, he joined the BSP and was elected to the

Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Hindi: ''Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha'') is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of Uttar Pradesh. There are 403 seats in the house filled by direct election using a single-member first-past-the-p ...

, and in 2004 to the

. During 1996-2002 he was member of Uttar Pradesh Assembly. He is married to Mrs. R.K. Devi and has two sons and one daughter.

Political career

In the sting Operation Duryodhana by the

Noida Noida, short for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, is a planned city located in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Noida is a satellite city of Delhi and is a part of the National Capital Region (NCR) o ...

based media firm

Cobrapost Cobrapost is a non-profit Indian news website that was founded in 2005 by Aniruddha Bahal – the co-founder of Tehelka. It is particularly known for its undercover investigative journalism. Description According to Kalyani Chadha, Cobrapost ...

, aired 12 December 2005 on the Indian

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

news TV Channel

Aaj Tak ''Aaj Tak'' () is an Indian Hindi-language news channel owned by TV Today Network, part of the New Delhi-based media conglomerate Living Media group (India Today Group) Aaj Tak HD On 14 December 2018, Aaj Tak launched India's first Hindi h ...

, Raja Ram Pal was caught on video accepting bribes of Rs. 35,000 for fielding questions in parliament. At one point, he says that the price of getting MPs to sign on to any petition is Rs. 25,000 per MP. He wants the money in advance; he underlines this with a colourful

couplet: :''sasta roye baar-baar, mehnga roye ek baar'' :(if you throw little money you will cry again and again, but if you throw big money you will cry only once).

Expulsion from Parliament

On 23 December 2005 he was expelled from the Lok Sabha following the adoption of a motion calling for the expulsion of all 11 MPs caught in the sting. The scam also led to Bahujan Samaj Party supremo

Mayawati Kumari Mayawati (born 15 January 1956) is an Indian politician. She has served four separate terms as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. She is the national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which focuses on a platform of social cha ...

expelling him from the party, along with three others. Subsequently, he joined the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

and was elected in the

2009 Indian general elections 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

. He joined the

on a rally in presence of Party Chief

Akhilesh Yadav Akhilesh is a given name. Notable people with the name include: * Akhilesh Das (1961–2017), educationist, professor, Indian politician and philanthropist * Akhilesh K. Gaharwar (born 1982), Indian academic and Professor at Texas A&M University * ...

in 2021.

References

1960 births Living people People from Kanpur Nagar district India MPs 2004–2009 India MPs 2009–2014 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 1997–2002 People from Akbarpur, Ambedkar Nagar Lok Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh United Progressive Alliance candidates in the 2014 Indian general election Bahujan Samaj Party politicians from Uttar Pradesh Indian National Congress politicians Indian National Congress politicians from Uttar Pradesh {{UttarPradesh-INC-politician-stub