New Delhi: A murder followed by a dramatic midnight arrest appears to have done little to dent strongman Anant Singh’s electoral fortunes.
Data by the Election Commission at 11 am Friday showed that the JD(U) candidate from Mokama was leading by over 11,200 votes from his nearest rival, Veena Devi of RJD.
Singh polled 26,229 votes in his favour while Devi logged 15,174. Counting of votes was completed for just eight out of 25 rounds by then.
If the trend holds, this will be Singh’s sixth consecutive win from the Bihar assembly constituency.
Singh was arrested on 2 November after Bihar Police alleged he was present when Dular Chand Yadav, who was campaigning for a Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) candidate, was killed following a spat.
A victory from Mokama would mark the third consecutive assembly election that Singh has contested from behind bars. He was jailed during the 2015 polls following his arrest in the murder of a young Yadav community member, at a time when the ruling Janata Dal (United) was allied with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). In 2020, he campaigned from jail after police recovered a large cache of arms and ammunition from his ancestral home in Nadwan village.
The JD(U) leader is accused in over 50 cases.
Singh’s popularity this election owes much to Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, also known as Lalan Singh, who took charge of his campaign after the arrest.
The day after Singh was remanded to judicial custody, Lalan hit the streets in Mokama with a charged appeal to party workers.
“Every person should contest the election as Anant Singh,” Lalan told party workers.
“When Anant Babu was out, my responsibilities were less, but now that he is in jail, my responsibilities have increased even more. From today, I have taken the command of Mokama into my own hands. I must say that there appears to be a conspiracy behind the arrest of Anant Singh. The truth will soon come out as the police are investigating the case, and people will come to know about the conspirators also,” he had said.
But Lalan’s campaign ran into its own controversy after he was heard saying that “some people needed to be stopped from coming out on voting day”. Patna Police consequently registered a case against him for violating the model code of conduct.
The campaign reflected a political debt.
Anant Singh, known as “Chhote Sarkar”, had campaigned for Lalan during last year’s Lok Sabha polls, when the minister faced a tough contest from Ashok Mahto in Munger. Singh was released on parole mid-election to settle a ‘land dispute’ but made clear once he was out that he intended to campaign for Lalan.