All eyes in underground-fire-hit Jharia are riveted on the no-less-fiery battle of the bahus — BJP’s Ragini Singh and Congress’s Purnima Singh are sisters-in-law, with Ragini’s husband Sanjeev accused of killing his cousin, Purnima’s husband Niraj — this state elections.

But a few do remember gentler times when the last king of the Jharia estate, late Kali Prasad Singh, had been an MLA.

Kali Prasad Singh, who had been the Jharia raja from 1947 to 1952, when the zamindari system was abolished, had been elected the first MLA of Sindri in 1952.

Though he left poll politics after his first term, he remained socially active till he breathed his last in 2003 at Jharia.

Talking to The Telegraph, his son Bisheshwar Prasad Singh said: “My father contested the election from Sindri and represented the Swatantra Party led by Maharaja Bahadur Kamakhya Narayan Singh of Ramgarh Raj.”

Bisheshwar, who along with his wife Snehlata Devi, are lawyers and divide their time between Bhubaneswar, where she hails from, and Jharia, said his father’s heart beat for the people.

The Jharia palace

“Such was his passion to serve the people in Jharia that he used to spend more than Rs 30,000 per month from his own pocket for people’s welfare in those days when he got only Rs 300 as his MLA pension,” smiled son Bisheshwar. “Old-timers remember the drought in Baliapur, Sindri, back then. For two months, he arranged food for countless people.”

He was made of a different mettle, agreed daughter-in-law Snehlata. “He was a royal, but a man of the people, polite, humble, sober ,” she said. “Long after he left politics, people visited him, he would hear everyone out, including the poor, and try to solve their problems. He loved to feed people, discuss socio-political issues. And he was a good listener. He’d say you can’t learn without listening.”

The last raja, his son added, had left enduring legacies — the RSP College in Jharia, which he set up in the memory of his father Raja Shiva Prasad in 1952, and the land he donated for the Central Fuel Research Institute. “Seven decades ago, he wanted colliery youths to get higher education. For his role in establishing the Central Fuel Research Institute in 1950, he got appreciation from then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.”

“A little before my father-in-law’s death, then Jharkhand governor Ved Marwah also felicitated him,” Snehalata said.

• Jharia votes on December 16