LUCKNOW: The Bahujan Samaj Party‘s only MLA in Uttar Pradesh, Umashankar Singh, lost his battle with a brain tumour at Delhi’s Fortis Hospital on Wednesday.Singh, a three-time MLA from Ballia’s Rasra constituency, also shared a close personal bond with BSP chief Mayawati, who had tied him a rakhi on Raksha Bandhan last year.Singh retained the Rasra seat in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. In her condolence message, Mayawati described him as a “dedicated, honest, loyal and popular” party leader and said his death was “extremely heartbreaking”.Her nephew and BSP national convener Akash Anand echoed the sentiment, calling Singh’s demise an “irreparable loss” for the party.“My deepest condolences to his family and all his well-wishers. No amount of praise can do justice to his devotion to the party. His entire family is like the BSP family, and all members of his family treat me with the full respect and honour as they would an elder sister,” Mayawati said.She remained in touch with Singh’s family throughout the day, regularly inquiring about his health. In her post, Mayawati said she learnt about his passing from his son.“In this hour of grief, I and the entire party stand with him and his family, and they must not lose courage in any way but rather move forward while facing this situation. May nature grant strength to all of them to bear this sorrow,” she added.Akash Anand described Singh’s death as the loss of a committed soldier of the Bahujan movement and an irreparable blow to the party. BSP national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra called his demise “extremely painful” and said it was a loss to both politics and society.Condolences also poured in from leaders across political parties, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.Singh had been undergoing treatment for a prolonged illness and underwent surgery soon after winning the 2022 assembly elections.In his mid-50s, he was a businessman by profession but was widely known in Ballia for his social work.His large-scale mass wedding initiatives earned him the popular local identity of “woh jo shadiyan karate hain.” In 2012, he organised the marriages of 251 girls, followed by another mass wedding ceremony for 351 girls in 2016.Speaking exclusively to TOI after Mayawati tied him a rakhi last year, Singh had said, “Behenji, known mostly as a very private person despite being in public life, has always shown her care and concern for me. When I was unwell, she came unannounced to my home in March 2025 to inquire about my health. Even after returning, she kept calling my son to check on me, which is what only a sister would do.”Mayawati had also attended the weddings of both Singh’s daughter and son.Asked then what gift he would give his elder sister, Singh had replied, “My gift was my promise to her that I am not going anywhere from here. I will always stay with her and with this party.”In 2024, when Singh voted for BJP candidate Sanjay Seth in the Rajya Sabha elections because of his personal rapport with him, Mayawati allowed him to do so despite criticism from the Opposition, which accused the BSP of being the BJP’s “B-team.”Singh entered electoral politics in 2012 and contested every election on a BSP ticket. He was the party’s lone MLA in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly after the 2022 elections.
