M.P. Jairaj (1946 - 1989) Jayaraj was from a poor family background, belonging to Gaaniga caste. He was brought into forefront of Bangalore underworld by M. D. Nataraj, the then son in law of the Chief Minister of Karnataka Sri Devaraj Urs. Legend has it thet Devaraj Urs was so impressed from the selection of his son-in-law, that the only question he asked him was what caste he belonged to and when he got the answer, jayraj was made president of the "Indira Brigade"- the youth wing of Congress party.
During the 1970s the politics in Karnataka was undergoing an immense change, the backward classes were emerging to the forefront in all the spheres of life and so was in politics led by Devaraj Urs. Devaraj Urs was a great visionary and helped the backward classes and dalits through is government programmes and as always there was opposition to these programmes by the froward caste people. To quell this opposition for the upliftment of poor and backward classess , Mr Devaraj Urs used both legal and illegal means, and one of the illegal means was the use of the underworld to quell the protestors and creat fear in them.
M.P.Jayaraj ruled the Bangalore underworld throughout the 1970s under the patronage of M. D. Nataraj, but after he was sentenced for 10 years in jail for assaulting a person in court premises, his hold on the underworld began to loosen, while he was in jail Devaraj Urs died, when he came out of it Bangalore was taken over by the new dons Kotwal Ramachandra and Oil Kumar. In the ensuing struggle to reign over bangalore, Kothwal Ramachandra was bumped off by Jayaraj. Jayaraj was immensely popular with people and ran a news paper "Ghareebi Hatao" targetting corrupt politicians and police. Because of his close relations with Congress party, he had to face the wrath of Janata Dal who were in power in mid 1980's. He was also not in good relations with police as he openly blasted them. It is well known fact that he was a professional fighter and had a strong physique, people feared taking on him from front. He survived several attempts on his life and this could not be digested easily by the aspring dons. A plot was finally made to hire sharp shooters from Mumbai an aspring-to-be Don decided to take up the task to himself. In 1989 the Janata Dal government had to resign over phone tappping charges and mid term elections were announced. Jayaraj was in Mysore jail at that time and he was advised to contest the elections by his lawyers, he applied for bail and bail was granted till the last day for election campaign. He was denied a ticket by his own party, he decided to contest as an Independent candidate from Jayanagar constituency. His symbol was tiger and he got actively involved in canvassing addressing huge public rallies. He visited the Siddapura police station daily and signed for his presence in the city. Jayaraj addressed his last big public rally on November 20th, 1989 at the muncipal grounds near Wilson garden a day before he was killed. On November 21st, 1989, at around 7.20am his car was attacked, bullets were fired at him from a LG rifle and he was killed in his car along with his lawyer. Jayaraj had the support of people and he was confident of winning the elections. The use of guns for the first time in Bangalore by another emerging criminal Muthappa Rai signalled the end of both Jayaraj and Oil kumar. Though Don Oil Kumar put up a massive fight, it ended in betrayal.