As Narendra Modi whirlwinds across Bihar invoking memories of the Lalu-Rabri “Jungle Raj”, his picture shares space with an unlikely companion on NDA banners in Mokama.
The stern, moustachioed face, hidden behind dark glasses that accompanies the Prime Minister’s is that of don turned politician Anant Singh. He is the Janata Dal United candidate from the constituency, 90km east of Patna, that has just witnessed the gruesome murder of a leading campaigner and former mobster.
Anant, a four-time MLA, has a long criminal record that includes charges of murder, extortion and arson. He regained eligibility to contest elections only in August last year when Patna High Court set aside his conviction under the Arms Act.
A convict sentenced to a prison term of two years or longer is barred from contesting elections for a further six years after serving their sentence.
“He may be a gangster for people like you, but for us he is our saviour,” said Kanhaiya Kumar, sitting inside Anant’s campaign office in Mokama.
“He ensured peace here after years of violence unleashed by Surajbhan and his gang.”
Kumar said he had lost three family members to gang violence in the early 2000s.
Surajbhan Singh, Anant’s long-time rival in both politics and gangland economy, is another don turned politician.
Convicted of murder, the former lawmaker has now secured an RJD ticket for his wife Veena Devi, who is pitted against Anant, turning the contest in Mokama into a high-stakes “gangster versus gangster” battle.
Both Anant and Surajbhan are from the influential Bhumihar caste and have, over the years, switched political loyalties to secure party nominations and patronage.
Anant won the Mokama seat as JDU nominee in 2005 and 2010, as an Independent in 2015 and as RJD candidate in 2020 but was later disqualified following his conviction. His wife Nilam Devi won the by-election on an RJD ticket. Ironically, Anant now represents the RJD’s rival, the JDU.
Surajbhan won the seat as an Independent in 2000 and later became MP from Balia on a Lok Janshakti Party ticket.
The industrial belt of Mokama, dotted with factories such as the Barauni refinery, Barauni thermal power station, Graphite India, and the now-defunct Bharat Wagon and Engineering Ltd, has long been the economic base for the region’s political-criminal nexus.
Local people say the gangs competed for lucrative government and industrial contracts while carrying out kidnappings and extortion through the 1990s and early 2000s, during the famed Lalu-Rabri “Jungle Raj”.
“The gang wars have reduced in recent years,” said Sushil Kushwaha, who runs a tea stall near Mokama railway station.
“With many development projects coming in, both sides have been getting contracts — there’s less to fight over.”
That uneasy calm was shattered on Thursday when Mokama recorded its first high-profile political murder this election season.
Seventy-five-year-old Dular Chand Yadav, a don turned social activist who had terrorised the area with RJD patronage in the 1990s, was killed while canvassing votes for Priyadarshi Piyush, candidate of Prashant Kishor’s fledgling Jan Suraaj Party.
Yadav was shot in the leg and then crushed under the wheel of a Thar, according to the FIR, which accuses Anant and his aides of the murder. Anant’s men have lodged a counter FIR against Piyush, who has gone into hiding. While talking to reporters, however, Anant accused Surajbhan of the murder.
According to police, Yadav’s convoy encountered Anant’s motorcade in the taal area — the sprawling floodplains that characterise Mokama’s landscape. Soon after, gunfire erupted.
“I was leading my campaign when Surajbhan’s men attacked the vehicles behind me. I have nothing to do with the murder,” Anant told reporters. “The crime was committed at the behest of Surajbhan.”
Violence flared again on Friday, with gunfire breaking out at Yadav’s funeral.
Videos circulating on social media appear to show men shouting that “Anant Singh’s people” had opened fire. No one was killed but fear has gripped the voters less than a week before the voting.
The Election Commission on Saturday suspended a police officer and transferred a returning officer and another policeman over the murder of Yadav. Sub-divisional police officer (Barh 2), Abhishek Singh, has been suspended, and Mokama returning officer Chandan Kumar and SDPO (Barh 1), Rakesh Kumar, have been transferred.
The EC has also askedthe state for a list of officers to replace Patna Rural SP Vikram Sihag. Previously, three junior police officers in the district were also suspended after they failed to prevent poll-related clashes.
For all the pious rhetoric in Bihar’s election campaign — the promises of jobs, development and peace — Mokama remains trapped in an older script where muscle power still dictates the ballot.
The BJP election machine blames all the violence —past, present or future — on the RJD.
“Tejashwi Yadav, who talks about making Bihar the number one (state), wants to make it number one in murders, ransom, looting and kidnappings, as it was during the Jungle Raj,” Union home minister Amit Shah told an election rally in Gopalganj through videoconferencing, after bad weather prevented him from flying.
- Mokama votes on November 6