Patna: It is ‘Chhote Sarkar’ versus ‘Dada’ in the Mokama assembly segment of Bihar, which has been witness to fierce rivalry between the two gangster-turned-politicians for decades.
‘Chhote Sarkar’, as JD(U) candidate Anant Singh is known in the area, had an uninterrupted run since 2005, until conviction in a Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act case in 2022 led to his disqualification.
In the ensuing bypoll, his wife Neelam Devi retained the seat for the RJD, which had given a ticket to her husband two years earlier, though acquittal in the case by the Patna High Court has led Singh to decide that he no longer needed the spouse to hold fort.
‘Dada’, the nickname by which Suraj Bhan Singh is known, however, remains disqualified and, hence, needs his wife Veena Devi to stand in the Assembly polls on his behalf, who is in the fray on an RJD ticket.
Suraj Bhan Singh had begun his political career in 2000, when, contesting as an independent candidate, he wrested the Mokama seat from Dilip Singh, the late elder brother of Anant, whom the locals called ‘bade sarkar’, and who also became a minister in the government headed by RJD president Lalu Prasad’s wife Rabri Devi.
It is widely believed that Suraj Bhan Singh’s “dynamism” in helping Nitish Kumar install a government that year, after the Assembly polls threw a hung assembly, got him noticed by the late Ram Vilas Paswan, his mentor. Four years later, he gave up the assembly seat and became the MP from the now-abolished Ballia seat, contesting on a ticket of the Lok Janshakti Party, founded by Paswan.
Anant Singh decided it was time for him to take the political plunge and contested the Assembly polls in 2005, winning in February and October, both times as a JD(U) nominee.
It is believed that he earned the trust of Nitish Kumar as a local strongman, while the JD(U) supremo represented in the Lok Sabha the now-abolished Barh constituency, of which Mokama was a part.
Tall, powerfully built and known to wear sunglasses even indoors, Anant Singh seeks to make light of his old rival returning to challenge him on his home turf.
“He (Suraj Bhan) has always been fickle-minded. Look at his political career. He left Mokama to become an MP from Ballia. His wife became an MP from Munger (in 2014) and five years later, his brother got elected from Nawada,” said Anant Singh, who counts on his own clout as much as on the governance track record of his benefactor, the longest-serving CM.
Flinching at the use of the term ‘bahubali’ (strongman), the ‘Chhote Sarkar’ alleged “it is the media which invents such labels. I shall win by the blessings of the people and by virtue of the good work done by Nitish Kumar”.
When reminded that he had not been on best terms with the JD(U) supremo since 2015, when he contested as an Independent, he said, “That is the past. But, you would agree that the people of Mokama vote for me, irrespective of whether I am contesting as an Independent or on the
ticket of any party.”
However, ‘Dada’, who has been in political wilderness for some time, with none of his family members in Parliament or the state legislature, believes the people are going to vote for a change, be it Mokama or the rest of Bihar. His wife, the official candidate, asserted “Anant Singh does not know how to talk. How can he raise issues of his constituency in the assembly? On the other hand, I have experience of Parliament, where I had the opportunity to raise matters concerning seven assembly segments that fell under my Lok Sabha constituency.”