Newsmaker | Anand Mohan: Jailed under Nitish govt, helped out of jail under Nitish govt

A prominent upper caste leader from Kosi region, Anand Mohan has had his run of political parties in the state – starting with the Janata Dal, to turning a key challenger to its leader Lalu Prasad in mid-1990s, to joining the NDA, to joining the JD(U), to returning to Lalu after falling out with Nitish.

Now, Lalu and Nitish are together in the Mahagathbandhan, and the chips have aligned again in Anand Mohan’s favour. Although, it is debatable whether the 69-year-old ever went out of favour – with his wife Lovely Anand and son Chetan both getting RJD tickets as recently as the 2020 Assembly polls; she lost narrowly, he won.

A day before the notification came that 26 prisoners – including Anand Mohan – were entitled for premature release following the jail manual change, Nitish had attended Chetan’s engagement ceremony.

The jail manual change dropped “murder of a public servant on duty” as one of the categories of crime for which the accused could not be considered for premature release, before 20 years. It was in 2007 that Anand Mohan was convicted for murder after then Gopalganj District Magistrate G Krishnaiah was lynched by a mob.

Ironically, at the time, the conviction was hailed as a sign of change in Bihar under Nitish, of speedy trials and crackdown against musclemen politicians — after the long rule of the RJD which was associated with lawlessness. Nitish was into his first real stint as CM, having taken oath in 2005 (in 2000, his tenure had ended in seven days). After Anand Mohan, former MP Mohammed Shahabuddin and a few others were also convicted.

A resident of Panchgachiya village in Saharsa, Anand Mohan’s political journey began as a Janata Dal candidate in the 1990 elections, when he won from Hamhishi Assembly segment in the area. Both Nitish and Lalu were in the Janata Dal then, and that election saw Lalu become CM of Bihar for the first time.

By 1992, Lalu was riding the Mandal wave and emerging as the face of the Yadavs and the oppressed classes, which is when friction developed between Anand Mohan and him.

In 1993, Anand Mohan split and formed the Bihar People’s Party (BPP), taking a strong anti-Lalu stand, which made him an instant hero of the upper castes, especially among his Rajput community. He came to be known for his aggressive speeches. Once in 1994, in an apparent challenge to Lalu from the grounds of Patna Science College, Anand Mohan declared: “Chandragupta is ready and is now looking for Chanakya”.

In 1994, Nitish too left the Janata Dal and floated the Samata Party with George Fernandes.

The lynching of Krishnaiah happened the same year. But despite his name coming up for having provoked the mob that lynched the DM, it didn’t stop Anand Mohan’s rise. The BPP tasted its first electoral success when Anand Mohan’s wife Lovely, herself scion of a politically influential family, won a 1994 bypoll from Vaishali.

Lalu grew increasingly wary of Anand Mohan’s popularity, particularly as stories started growing of his showdown with RJD leader Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav (later to be MP) over dominance of Kosi region. What began as an upper caste vs backward class fight at the height of the Mandal Commission protests, later converted into a Rajputs versus Yadavs clash.

In 1996, Anand Mohan won the Sheohar parliamentary seat in the general elections, and aligned his BPP with the NDA – which was then vying for power at the Centre. Soon after though, he switched sides to the UPA.

In 2005, Nitish became CM of Bihar for the second time, in alliance with the BJP. Anand Mohan’s long-drawn court trial finally led to his conviction in 2007. He was given death sentence, which was later commuted to life.

Technically, Anand Mohan has been out of active politics for 24 years (his MP tenure ended in 1999). But, in that time, apart from his wife — who would become Vaishali MP in 1994 — and later join the RJD along with their son, Anand Mohan’s protégés Kishore Kumar Munna and Neeraj Singh Bablu too have become legislators. While Munna is not affiliated to any party, Neeraj is now a BJP MLA.

There are expectations that with Anand Mohan back in the field, Rajput leaders will rally around him. The Nitish-led JD(U) and Lalu-guided RJD see upper castes as the missing link in their caste shield.

Anand Mohan is expected to change equations in at least six Assembly segments of Madhepura, Supaul and Saharsa. Madhepura, a devoted Yadav and hence RJD base, has over 65,000 Rajput voters. In the Kosi region, under which Madhepura falls, the BJP is anyway struggling.

As recently as the 2020 polls, when the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the state, the performance of Anand Mohan’s wife and son were evidence of his continuing hold on Saharsa. Lovely lost only narrowly from Saharsa Assembly seat to the BJP’s Alok Ranjan; while Chetan won from Sheohar.

For the last three years, since the polls, Nitish has been under pressure from upper caste leaders of his party, including MLC Sanjay Singh, to consider premature release of Mohan. The Bihar CM too gave subtle hints at least on two occasions that he would do something for his former colleague.

While RJD and JD(U) leaders maintain that the change in Bihar Police Jail Manual was not meant for any one individual, in private they say it was only “politically correct”, with the Rajput leader having served 14 years in jail.

Otherwise quick to attack the government of “sushashan babu” Nitish over any slips on the law and order front, since he made a U-turn, left it and joined the RJD, the BJP has been cautious over the Anand Mohan matter.

Rather than criticising it, the BJP has been asking why the Mahagathbandhan government does not consider similar relief for the countless held for minor crimes under the prohibition law.