Newsmaker | Bahubali of Mokama, RJD’s Anant Singh faces a fight to keep his iron grip

One of Bihar’s most controversial politicians of the last four decades, Singh, the five-term bahubali MLA from Mokama, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in an Arms Act case by the MP-MLA Court of Patna on Tuesday and now faces a battle to keep his grip on an area that he has dominated for more than three decades.

Anant and Dilip Singh started off as close aides of Congress heavyweight from Mokama Shyam Sunder Singh Dhiraj in 1980. Five years later, Dilip contested against his mentor but lost. He won in 1990, ending Dhiraj’s dominance in the region and starting his and his brother’s. Since then, the brothers have dominated Mokama with the exception of the five years from 2000 to 2005 during which Surajbhan Singh, another strongman politician from the Bhumihar community, was the constituency’s MLA.

Mokama is a vast stretch of low-lying area that remains submerged for several months but the land is fertile and known for the cultivation of pulses, mainly gram and lentil. After Anant Singh got into the JD(U) fold, he contested the state elections in February and October 2005 and won both times. The following year, Dilip passed away, leaving Anant in sole control of Mokama. Anant Singh retained the constituency in the 2010 state elections too. But with Mokama being a place where Singh’s writ runs, he was never in need of a political party’s support to maintain his control of the constituency.

Singh kept up a flamboyant public profile throughout the years, sporting cowboy hats and expressing his love for cars and horses. The MLA has cultivated a Robin Hood image and is known to help patients from the area get admitted to hospitals in Patna and Delhi. He is also known to monetarily help those who need it for their children’s marriage. Singh’s supporters also maintain a list of people whom he has helped in some way. For a number of years, the MLA was involved in a turf war with his cousins, including Vikeka Pahalwan, but that dispute has been laid to rest now.

With Singh falling out with the party over its alliance with the RJD, the party sought to replace him with former state minister Neeraj Kumar in the 2015 elections. But the strongman illustrated his dominance by contesting as an Independent and defeating Kumar. Five years later, he found himself in the RJD while the JD(U) was back in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold. He won from Mokama on an RJD ticket.

With his conviction, Singh has become the fourth RJD leader after party chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, former minister Iliyas Hussain, and former MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav to be convicted in a case. If the High Court rejects his appeal against the lower court’s decision, the MLA stands to be disqualified from the Assembly. Though he may still attempt to hold on to the seat by using his wife Nilam Devi as a proxy, his conviction in the Arms Act case provides the ruling JD(U) an opportunity with an opening it needs to take Mokama.