An infamous crime lord, a shotgun wedding, and a political debut? Bihar waits, RJD mulls

That would pit the debutant Anita opposite JD(U) sitting MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh – whose story incidentally has run a different course compared to Mahato’s lately, after a falling out with JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar.

One of the first stops that Mahato and Anita – originally from Lakhisarai, but lately a resident of Delhi – made after their wedding was the Patna residence of RJD chief Lalu Prasad and wife Rabri Devi, to seek their “blessings”. Mahato called it a “courtesy meeting”, but RJD sources admitted it was more than that.

The RJD is looking to field at least five-six Koeri-Kurmi OBC candidates in the coming Lok Sabha polls to cut into Nitish Yadav’s “Luv-Kush” vote bank besides shed its own image of being an exclusively “MY (Muslim-Yadav)” party. Mahato, originally from Nawada, is a Kurmi.

On his release from Bhagalpur prison last year, after serving 17 years over a 2001 jailbreak case, Mahato said he had “forgotten how to speak” during the long stint behind bars. But, he minced no words attacking CM Nitish Kumar, blaming him for his jail stint.

JD(U) MLC and spokesperson Neeraj Kumar told The Indian Express: “With no official announcement of candidates by the RJD, it is not proper to comment, but if Mahato’s wife is given the Lok Sabha ticket, it would only reflect the RJD’s mentality of promoting people with dubious credentials.”

RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari said: “Our Lok Sabha candidates have not been announced yet. As for morality, the JD(U) should look at the history of some of its own candidates first before targeting us.”

Between 1990 and 2006, Mahato had reigned supreme in Sheikhpura, Nawada and Lakhisarai, running up a long list of murder and extortion charges, including over the May 2006 killing of seven members of the OBC Chourasia community in Mannipur, Sheikhpura, and the 2000 massacre in Apsar, Nawada, of 12 upper caste Bhumihar villagers.

For the Mannipur case, he was arrested by then Sheikhpura SP Amit Lodha, who later wrote a book called Bihar Diaries on Mahato’s long run, on which Khakee: The Bihar Chapter is based.

Of all these cases in which Mahato is named, he has been convicted only in the 2001 Nawada jailbreak case. His acquittals have come in the case involving the murder of a Congress leader and that of a former block development official of Ariari, Sheikhpura.

Incidentally, while the RJD is said to be eyeing him as an OBC face, in most of the cases Mahato is accused in, the victims were backwards or Dalits.

While it would be the first time Mahato is trying his luck in politics, via marriage, he has a precedent.

In 2011, Siwan muscleman Ajay Singh got married to Kavita Singh, holding the ceremony in the so-called “inauspicious” pitra paksh period, in time to get her a JD(U) ticket from the Daraunda Assembly seat. The constituency had fallen vacant after the death of Ajay Singh’s mother Jagmato Devi.

Not only did Kavita Singh win, she has moved on since. Currently, she is the JD(U) MP from Siwan. Ajay Singh, meanwhile, remains a JD(U) leader.