Tiwari was the first gangster in Indian political history to have won elections from prison.[3] Elected from Chillupar, he remained a member of the legislative assembly for years.[4]
Tiwari was a cabinet minister at the State Assembly in several governments,[5] including the Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) government (2003–2007).
In 2000, he was the Stamp and Registration cabinet minister in Ram Prakash Gupta's government. In 2001, he was the cabinet minister in Rajnath Singh's government and also in year 2002, he was the cabinet minister in Mayawati's Government.[6]
Nephew Ganesh Shankar Pandey was a state legislator from Maharajganj.[12] In 2010 he won the MLC election for the fourth consecutive time, and was the speaker of the legislative council.[13]
^Zaidi, Annie. Bread, Cement, Cactus: A Memoir of Belonging and Dislocation. Cambridge University Press. p. 32.
^Rashtriya Sahara, Volume 2, Issue 5. Sahara India Mass Communication. p. 19. The UP Assembly has been dubiously adorned by several gangsters in the past and even is today. Hari Shankar Tiwari and Bhola Pandey both not only got tickets to the Assembly but also won the elections and were House members for a good number of years.
^Purnima S. Tripathi (24 October 2003). "L'affaire Amarmani". Frontline, Volume 20, Issue 21. Archived from the original on 28 January 2008. Retrieved 12 May 2007.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)