He is widely known as Uttar Pradesh's Osama bin Laden for having eluded the cops indefinitely.

Madan Bhaiya has 18 criminal cases pending against him, and till recently was also booked under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act. Nothing extraordinary, except that Madan Bhaiya is a legislator from the Khekhda assembly constituency in Baghpat district

But what has put this slippery MLA in the limelight has been the talk in political circles that Chief Minister Mayawati might induct him as the 70^th member of her jumbo Cabinet.

His name spells terror in western Uttar Pradesh and is in the "most wanted" list of the police.

What Raja Bhaiya was to Kunda in Pratapgarh district, Madan Bhaiya is to Khekhda, which is near Meerut. Yet, this other Bhaiya had managed to build bridges with Mayawati, unlike Raja Bhaiya who has fallen foul of the Bahajun Samaj Party strongwoman and is cooling his heels behind bars after being charged under Prevention of Terrorism Act.

A highly placed source told rediff.com that Mayawati has agreed to pardon this Bhaiya's sins as long he supports her government. His induction in the ministry would, however, be made only after the brief week-long Budget session of the assembly commencing February 28, the source indicated.

The source said the chief minister had detailed a deputy inspector general of police to work out a deal with the outlaw. Incidentally, the same senior police official was believed to have come in handy in recently bringing over another criminal-turned-politician, Mehboob Ali, over to Mayawati's camp after his one-member party merged with Bahujan Samaj Party. Despite the dozen-odd cases of murder, extortion and other heinous crimes pending against him, the legislator bagged a ministerial berth in return of switching loyalties.

Earlier, the police had failed to arrest Madan Bhaiya on two occasions when he surfaced in the assembly for voting in the Presidential election and the Rajya Sabha poll.

How he managed to play the vanishing trick on two occasions remains a mystery. Not only the state but even Delhi Police sleuths had laid a net outside the state assembly to nab him.

The failure of state police prompted a helpless Uttar Pradesh police chief to go to the extent of pleading before the Delhi high court to disallow the media from recording his pleadings about the failure of the cops. The court, however, declined the request while asking the police chief whether Madan Bhaiya was another 'Osama Bin Laden' whom they had repeatedly failed to track down.