Kameshwar Baitha

Kameshwar Baitha
Former Member of Parliament
In office
15th Lok Sabha 2009-2014
Preceded byManoj Kumar
Succeeded byVishnu Dayal Ram
ConstituencyPalamu, Jharkhand, India
Personal details
Born (1956-03-15) 15 March 1956
Dhanchabar, Palamu, (Jharkhand).
Citizenship India
PartyBahujan Samaj Party
Other political
affiliations
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (until 2014)

All India Trinamool Congress

Rashtriya Janata Dal (until 2024)
SpouseDeomunia Devi
Children03 sons and 01 daughter.
ProfessionSocial Worker and Politician.
CommitteesCommittee on Railways (Member).
[1]

Kameshwar Baitha was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha of India. He represented the Palamu constituency of Jharkhand. He was the state President of All India Trinamool Congress Jharkhand Unit and last contested the Lok Sabha 2024 elections for Palamu district from the Bahujan Samaj Party[2]. He was originally a member of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha political party, but joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014.[3] He left the BJP for the Trinamool Congress after failing to get a ticket for the general Elections of 2014.[4] After joining the Rashtriya Janata Dal sometime after 2014, he resigned in 2024, joining the Bahujan Samaj Party and contesting under the party's banner[5].

Education and background

Kameshwar Baitha was born in a village in the Bishrampur block of the Palamu district (then part of Bihar). The highest educational qualification attained by Baitha is matriculation.[1] During the 1970s, the rampant feudalism and the resulting marginalisation of the landless lower castes led to social unrest in Palamu and other parts of Bihar. Several low-caste people joined the Naxalite–Maoist insurgent groups. Baitha joined Party Unity in the late 1980s, after the Arwal massacre in which 21 supporters of the left-wing group Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Samiti (MKSS) were killed in police firing. As a Naxal insurgent, he commandeered the Koel-Sankh zone of the CPI (Maoist).[6]

As a result of his Naxalite past, he is facing as many as 53 criminal cases in various courts that includes killing of 17 PAC jawans and divisional forest officer Sanjay Singh at Rehal village on Kaimur hills in Rohtas.[7] He was the only jail inmate when selected as MP in 2009. Baitha denied his involvement in any violence, stating that he had never touched a weapon in his life during his "27 years of struggle for the people's cause."[8]

Political career

In 2009, Kameshwar Baitha won the Lok Sabha elections from Palamu, which is reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates. He had contested the elections on a JMM ticket, while lodged in a Bihar jail. He defeated Rashtriya Janata Dal's sitting MP Ghuran Ram. After winning the elections, he spent two years and 7 months in jail, getting bail in late 2011.[6]

Baitha left JMM in 2014. He declared that he had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but BJP declined this and did not approve his membership.[9] He then joined TMC, and was given a ticket for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.[10]

Posts held

#FromToPosition
012009-Elected to 15th Lok Sabha
022009-Member, Committee on Railways

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Lok Sabha profile". Lok Sabha website. Archived from the original on 1 February 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  2. ↑ "Kameshwar Baitha". News18. 21 May 2026. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  3. ↑ "JMM MP Kameshwar Baitha joins BJP". www.avenuemail.in. Archived from the original on 10 March 2014.
  4. ↑ "Miffed with BJP, Baitha joins TMC". The Times of India. 13 March 2014. Archived from the original on 10 August 2023. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  5. ↑ "पूर्व सांसद कामेश्वर बैठा ने राजद से दिया इस्तीफा, बसपा के टिकट पर पलामू लोकसभा से लड़ेंगे चुनाव - Lok Sabha Election 2024". ETVBharat. 20 April 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  6. 1 2 "From the jungle to Parliament". The Hindu. 10 April 2014. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  7. ↑ Barry, Ellen (14 October 2013). "In India's Politics, Jail Time Is a Badge of Honor". nytimes. Archived from the original on 10 August 2023. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  8. ↑ "Baitha released from jail". The Times of India. 8 May 2011. Archived from the original on 21 March 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  9. ↑ Deepu Sebastian Edmond (9 March 2014). "Former DGP might contest against Palamu MP who faces criminal charges". Indian Express. Archived from the original on 10 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  10. ↑ "Biswajeet, Mooshahary, Baitha in 2nd TMC list of 30 candidates". Business Standard. 12 March 2014. Archived from the original on 12 March 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
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