Convoys of two political parties come across each other at a crossing, a collision follows, shots ring out, and a muscleman lies dead. Thus began a new chapter in the history of crime, politics and bahubalis in one of Bihar’s most volatile constituencies, Mokama, on Thursday afternoon.
The man killed was 75-year-old Dularchand Yadav, whose list of past associations runs from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to RJD chief Lalu Prasad to the muscleman in the other convoy and the JD(U) Mokama candidate, Anant Singh.
Witnesses say that the incident – the first serious one of violence in these Bihar elections – started when convoys of Jan Suraaj candidate Piyush Priyadarshi, including Dularchand, and Anant Singh ran into each other near Basawan Chak in Taratar village. Stones were soon flying, followed by bullets. Amid the chaos, Dularchand was first shot, then run over by a vehicle. About a dozen others were injured.
The Election Commission has sought a report from the Bihar DGP on the incident. Police have registered four FIRs, including one against Anant Singh by Dularchand’s family, and another by Singh’s supporters against Jan Suraaj workers.
In Mokama, where crime, politics, and caste have often crossed paths, this is far from new.
Dominated by the Bhumihars, Mokama has hardly ever elected an MLA who does not belong to the community since 1952 – or, for that matter, any representative without a criminal record – earning it the tag of ‘Capital of Bhumihars’.
The list of cases against Dularchand, the rare non-Bhumihar to rise up the Mokama rungs, went back to 1991, when he was named in the murder of Congress worker Sitaram Singh. His co-accused were Anant Singh’s brother Dilip Singh and Nitish Kumar. Nitish and Dularchand were later cleared, with the cognisance of the case against the JD(U) supremo and CM quashed by the Patna High Court in 2019.
By 2010, Dularchand faced 11 criminal cases, including charges of murder, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, and firearm violations.
He also maintained good ties with Anant Singh, a prudent move in Mokama, where the 64-year-old has dominated politics in recent times. This includes retaining the seat within the family since 2005, under different banners – the JD(U), RJD, and as an Independent – even while running up a long history sheet.
In 2015, Anant Singh was arrested for a kidnapping and murder, which followed a police raid involving 500 personnel and anti-riot vehicles. Weapons, bulletproof jackets, and bloodstained clothes were reportedly recovered.
In 2019, another police raid found an AK-47 rifle, grenades, and cartridges. In the affidavit for his 2020 election from Mokama, which he won, Anant Singh listed 38 cases, though official records suggest over 50 charges since 1979.
In 2022, he was convicted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act over the 2019 seizures, and was sentenced to 10 years, leading to his disqualification from the Assembly. His wife Neelam Devi stepped in to contest the bypoll in 2022 on the RJD ticket and won. She is later believed to have cross-voted for Nitish Kumar in the 2024 floor test.
In 2024, the Patna High Court acquitted Anant Singh in the UAPA case citing lack of evidence – returning him to the electoral fray.
Tensions between Dularchand and Anant Singh are believed to have flared up over the former shifting loyalties to Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj this time. His campaigning for Jan Suraaj candidate Priyadarshi and criticism of Anant Singh deteriorated matters.
Meanwhile, there is another bahubali looking on from the wings: Surajbhan Singh, also a Bhumihar. The RJD candidate from Mokama is Surajbhan’s wife Veena Devi.
The rivalry between Anant Singh and Surajbhan’s politics has defined Mokama’s politics for decades now.
Surajbhan first entered politics in 2000 as an Independent, dealing a blow to Anant Singh’s elder brother Dilip Singh, then an RJD minister, from Mokama. If Dilip Singh is known as ‘Bade Sarkar’, Anant Singh bears the moniker ‘Chote Sarkar’.
Surajbhan’s record includes 26 criminal cases. These include convictions in high-profile murders – such as a 1992 killing, and the 1998 killing of former minister Brij Bihari Prasad, in which he got acquittal by the Patna High Court in 2014, and the Supreme Court in 2024.
The trysts with crime mean Surajbhan remains barred from contesting elections. Wife Veena Devi, who is taking on Anant Singh, is a former MP, who had defeated senior JD(U) leader Lalan Singh from the Munger Lok Sabha seat in 2014.
While Dularchand owed his rise to Lalu’s patronage in the 1990s of Yadav leaders in Mokama in a bid to challenge the Bhumihar hegemony – many would become entrenched in the very system – that era has long passed. Anant Singh’s control since 2005 means that the old order has reasserted itself – with the JD(U) leader building his bastion as much on his alleged brutality as his beneficence.
The Jan Suraaj has built its Mokarma campaign around the promise of fighting this criminality in politics. Its candidate Priyadarshi, 30, is an EBC, who has focused on issues like education, employment, and healthcare, and called Mokama an example of Bihar’s enduring “jungle raj”.
How much of that promise will hold out, after that clash on that crossing on Thursday afternoon? Polling day, November 6, will tell.