Did you know Bareilly's Kaka Joginder Singh fought every election to lose

By Team Newsable | First Published Feb 5, 2022, 10:53 AM IST

Kaka Joginder Singh ran for councillor of the municipal corporation, assembly, Lok Sabha, and vice president and president in every election he ran in his lifetime. In total, he ran in 350 elections over 36 years.

From 1962 till his death in 1998, Kaka Joginder Singh alias Dharti Pakkar of Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, submitted nominations in every election but lost. His specialisation has made his name well-known throughout the country. He ran for councillor of the municipal corporation, assembly, Lok Sabha, and vice president and president in every election he ran in his lifetime. In total, he ran in 350 elections over 36 years, but he submitted nominations and then did no campaigning; instead he went to people and said, "Don't vote for me; I've filed nomination to lose."

Every election, Kaka's security was forfeited. He said that his security money should be put to good use for the country, so he deposited the nomination fee. Actually, Kaka's objective was to reform the mechanism of nominating candidates in every election. He claimed that the people had no right to vote for anybody other than the candidates imposed by political parties. If the public does not want to appoint any of them, the government cannot do anything; thus, the government should choose public representatives based on the wishes of the people rather than political parties.

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People said that Kaka used to fight every election to set the record for the most elections contested in the country. Nehru wanted Kaka to fight for Congress, but he declined. It was the immediate post-independence period. Jawaharlal Nehru, the then-prime minister, wanted a Sikh from Bareilly to run for Congress. When names were requested for this, Joginder Singh's name was submitted, but Kaka declined to run for Congress, stating that he had no interest in becoming an MLA or MP or joining any party.

Kaka Joginder Singh was previously nominated for both the Presidential and Vice Presidential elections. In the Presidential election, he ran against Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, while he ran against KR Narayan in the vice-presidential race.

Kaka Joginder Singh was born in the United Indian state of Gujranwala (now Pakistan) in 1918. His family relocated to Bareilly after the partition. Kaka's apparel store is still open in Bada Bazar. In 1962, he ran for the first time for the Bareilly city assembly. He received 747 votes for this. After that, he began to register for every election. He used to go to any state to run in the Lok Sabha elections, not only Uttar Pradesh. In 1991, he ran in the Haryana Lok Sabha elections from Rohtak and Bhiwani. In the 1993 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Kaka Joginder Singh ran for all nine Hardoi district seats.

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