Vijay Kumar Shukla, also known as Munna Shukla, is a former

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. ...

(MLA) 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 ...

. He has been elected on three occasions to the

Bihar Legislative Assembly The Bihar Legislative Assembly, also known as the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of the Bihar Legislature where the first elections were held in 1952. The total strength of membership in the Assembly was 331, including one nominated ...

. He served a jail term for murder. He was left out of jail on bail later.

Family and education

He is the brother of Chhotan Shukla, a notorious gang member who was assassinated in 1994, allegedly by the henchmen of Brij Bihari Prasad, a minister belonging to OBC Bania caste, who was a strongman from

Lalu Prasad Yadav Lalu Prasad Yadav (born 11 June 1948) is an Indian politician and president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). He is a former Chief Minister of Bihar (1990-1997), a former Railway Minister of India (2004-2009), and a former Member of Parlia ...

's Rashtriya Janata Dal. His another brother Bhutkun Shukla who was responsible for killing G. Krishnaiah, the

District Magistrate A District Collector-cum-District Magistrate (also known as Deputy Commissioner in some states) is an All India Service officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre who is responsible for ''land revenue collection'', ''canal reve ...

(DM) of Gopalganj during Chhotan's funeral procession and is now also dead. His wife, Annu Shukla, is an MLA from his former seat.

Political career

Shukla was first elected a MLA from the Lalganj constituency in the 2000 as Independent Candidate. Again won in February 2005 Bihar elections as a

Lok Janshakti Party The Lok Janshakti Party ( LJP, "People’s Manpower Party") was a state political party mainly based in the state of Bihar, India. The party was formed in 2000 when Ram Vilas Paswan split from Janata Dal. The party had a considerable followin ...

candidate. In the October elections of that year he won again after switching to be a

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 Pr ...

candidate. Shukla later stood as an JD(U) candidate for the

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-p ...

constituency of Vaishali. There he lost to the national vice-president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal,

Raghuvansh Prasad Singh Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (6 June 1946 – 13 September 2020) was an Indian socialist politician. In the Lok Sabha, he represented the Vaishali constituency of Bihar and was the national vice president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal political par ...

. He was debarred from election as he was convicted in the Brij Behari Prasad murder case along with

Surajbhan Singh Surajbhan Singh is an Indian politician and former Member of Parliament. He was born in Bhumihar family. He was elected to the parliament from Bihar contesting on a ticket from Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). Currently he is debarred from contesting ...

Crime

The criminal careers of Shukla and of

Anand Mohan Singh Anand Mohan Singh (born 28 January 1954) is a convicted killer, politician and was founder of the now-defunct Bihar People's Party (BPP). , he is serving a life sentence for abetting murder; prior to reduction to this term on appeal, he had b ...

, both of which were intertwined with politics, ran in parallel for many years and were of equal note. ''

Tehelka ''Tehelka'' (Hindi: Sensation) is an Indian news magazine known for its investigative journalism and sting operations. According to the British newspaper ''The Independent'', the ''Tehelka'' was founded by Tarun Tejpal, Aniruddha Bahal and a ...

'' said in 2007 that The two overlapped completely in 1994 at the time of the lynching of a

Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming ...

district magistrate A District Collector-cum-District Magistrate (also known as Deputy Commissioner in some states) is an All India Service officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre who is responsible for ''land revenue collection'', ''canal reve ...

near to

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 ...

during the funeral cortege of Chhotan Shukla. In 2007 they were sentenced to death for their involvement in the murder but Shukla's sentence was later overturned on appeal, when it was determined that he was present but uninvolved, and Singh's sentence was reduced to life imprisonment. While in jail for that offence in 2012, Shukla was studied for and was awarded a PhD by

Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University, formerly Bihar University, popularly known as Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Bihar University (BRABU), is a public university located in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India. Established in 1960, the university has 38 const ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shukla, Vijay Kumar Janata Dal (United) politicians Living people Criminals from Bihar Indian politicians convicted of murder Lok Janshakti Party politicians Bihar MLAs 2005–2010 People from Vaishali district Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)