Known as Chhote Sarkaar, Anant Singh always speaks in Magahi, the local dialect. He first went to jail when he was in his teens and has been shot at twice. In 2004, he had a five-hour gun battle with Special Task Force (STF) personnel in which eight of his men and one STF jawan was killed. He has 32 cases lodged against him.
Singh, a Bhumihar (a moneyed upper caste), is also one of the independent candidates who managed to buck the trend and come out unscathed from what was billed as the war between the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan. The infamous don, who contested the polls from Mokama while lodged in Bhagalpur jail - 150 km from his constituency - is among the seven winners who are not affiliated to either of the two alliances.
The Gangetic badlands of Mokama is a constituency of about 2.3 lakh voters, including about 90,000 Bhumihars. Earlier it was represented by
Anant's elder brother Dilip Singh, RJD (1990 and 1995),
then Surajbhan Singh (2000) and
then Anant 2005 and 2010 as a JD-U candidate.
This year, Anant, quit JD-U after he was jailed. He was up against three other Bhumihars: Lok Janshakti Party's Kanhaiya Singh and the Jan Adhikar Party's Lallan Singh and JD-U's clean-cut Neeraj Kumar. Despite all this he secured 54,005 votes (= 23.4% votes) & defeated Kumar by 18,348 votes and emerged as the legitimate representative of over 4 lac people of Mokama.
Shaibal Gupta, a social scientist and founder member-secretary of Asian Development Research Institute in Patna, said: "Both Anant Singh and Neeraj Kumar who contested with the JD(U) ticket from Mokama seat, belong to the Bhumihar caste, so caste could not have been the deciding factor. He has not yet been convicted. He is not a Robin Hood-kind of a mass leader that people will vote for him by choice. However, he has not been convicted yet and has enough clout to get the people to vote for him."
Read More. Bihar Fact File
Read More. Bihar Fact File
