Mokama On Edge: Is It Back To Jungle Raj As Political Rivals Clash Ahead Of Bihar Elections 2025

Outside a shrine at the crossing in Mokama in Bihar, a priest looked at the road ahead.

His tone had an ominous ring to it.

“The war will be bloody here. You know it is Mokama,” he said.

A strange quiet has descended on the town that is the fiefdom of the incumbent MLA Anant Singh, a criminal-politician who has been a controversial figure and anathema for chief minister Nitish Kumar, who has often been criticised for his soft stance on Anant Singh, who is now again under fire in the aftermath of a clash in Mokama yesterday, where a murder was committed.

The Strongman’s Shadow On Bihar Election

The body of a former strongman who was close to RJD’s Lalu Prasad Yadav is waiting to be cremated in Bihar’s Mokama, and the family is asking for justice to be delivered. Barely six days before the first phase of the Bihar assembly elections, the violence in Mokama has now cast a dark shadow over the political parties, and Nitish Kumar’s government is now in a fix.

For some time now, the NDA has been invoking jungle raj in its election campaign and asking voters to refrain from voting for the RJD and asking them to remember the days when crime ruled in Bihar. But crime never really took a back seat, and the killing of a Jan Suraaj supporter is another testimony to the fact that, despite the rhetoric, the ground reality in Bihar is still a narrative that’s not free from such incidents.

Blood And Bullets Ahead Of Bihar Ballots

Last evening, news came in from Mokama that a man was killed in the election rally of the Jan Suraaj party. Guns blazed again in Mokama. In this ravaged landscape that has bahubalis flexing muscles every election, this isn’t out of the norm.

While the Prime Minister and others from the BJP and the JD(U) are still invoking Jungle Raj as their pitch against the Mahagatbhandan in the Bihar elections, the murder of Dularchand Yadav, a former strongman and an ex-aide of Lalu Prasad Yadav, in Mokama, is testimony to the fact that murders continue.

Both RJD and Jan Suraaj issued statements condemning the violence.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said, "There's no need for violence in elections. We have never been in favour of violence. The code of conduct is in place, yet how are some people carrying guns and bullets during elections? The Prime Minister talks about 30 years ago. What happened 30 minutes ago?"

Yadav added, "Today, an ASI was murdered by slitting his throat in Siwan. Dularchand Yadav was murdered in Mokama... So what is this? What kind of people, of what nature, are occupying Bihar... Now people are understanding. The Prime Minister should see these things with open eyes.”

Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor, who had only last week taken a swipe at Yadav warning of the return of Jungle Raj, said: “Violence has no place in democracy. The murder of someone is the responsibility of the administration and those responsible for law and order, and it's their failure.”

Kishor added that “'Baahubali' may belong to any caste, any community, village, or ideology, but what is wrong is wrong. I've said in a previous statement that strongmen aren't afraid to fight strongmen. They're afraid to fight good people. So, Jan Suraaj has given the public this option. Not just in Mokama, but in many other areas of Bihar as well. Now it's up to the people of Bihar to choose clean people or the same old corrupt, strongmen."

Jungle Raj Redux? The Politics Of Fear In Bihar Election

JDU candidate Anant Singh, a strongman who is known for his antics and theatrics, has been in the spotlight for the murder. A self-styled Bahubali who also calls himself Chote Sarkar is pitched against another high-profile strongman, Suraj Bhan Singh’s wife Veena Devi, in Mokama in the 2025 Bihar assembly election. Anant Singh lost favour for a brief while but is considered close to Nitish Kumar who fought the 2005 elections saying that he would put an end to Jungle Raj and ironically, this time, which might be his last innings, the term Jungle Raj has again gained traction during the campaigns with the BJP putting out advertisements in newspapers asking the public to vote against it with newspaper headlines from the 1990s splashed in the background.

For many in Mokama, which is around 90 kilometres from Patna, their choice is dictated by fear and loyalty to either camp. Anant Singh has been holding the seat in Mokama for four terms already, with a brief hiatus when he was disqualified in 2022 for possession of an AK-47, which was confiscated from his house in Ladma village in Bihar.

Singh was released later and wasn’t convicted in the case.

In a video, he said about the murder and the violence that happened in Mokama that it was Suraj Bhan Singh who had incited violence in the region since his wife, Veena Devi, is fighting on an RJD ticket against him.

“We were meeting people and asking them to vote for us. On the way, we saw several vehicles; they too were campaigning and started shouting ‘Murdabad’. I told my supporters not to respond, and we moved away. Some of my vehicles were behind us. Suraj bhan was fully prepared for a clash, and his people started attacking our vehicles... Dularchand was the first one to raise his hand. I moved ahead with about 30 vehicles behind me, and they attacked 10 of the vehicles at the rear. My supporters’ vehicles were vandalised,” he said.

In January this year, a shootout happened in Mokama, where it is said that Anant Singh escaped an attack. Gang wars are common in these badlands, where flexing muscles to claim superiority is not an anomaly.

Singh has 28 criminal cases against him, according to his affidavit. He is a five-time MLA from Mokama, and his family has mostly held the seat since 1990, except for a brief period when it was won by Suraj Bhan Singh, who held it from 2000 until 2005.

Who is Anant Singh, The Bahubali At The Centre of Mokama’s Political Scene?

Anant Singh, who has the media eating out of his hands in an age where mavericks have the potential to go viral, was giving interviews last week at the mukhiya’s house in Rampur Dumra village in Mokama.

Contesting on a JDU ticket this time, Singh was sitting with his aides, who had the freedom to switch off the camera at any given point lest the statements by their chieftain were not right.

Singh knows that he is a sought-after man, and he has the theatrics to keep himself relevant in the media, although with a record like that, he represents the compromises and the pretensions of the system. Since the advent of social media, which mostly works on sensational stuff, Anant Singh has become their poster boy.

For writers, it is always an awkward interview in front of the camera. He dodges questions, his aides control everything, and the reporters are to be content with that little window that is given to them. But the story is not that clip. It is much more.

A man was summoned who carried the MLA’s shoes and then bent down to tie the laces while Anant Singh smoked a cigarette. He had just returned from his rounds, and there was a feast for the party workers and the villagers. All men. Serving, eating, talking. Anant Singh would go for another round in the village later in the afternoon.

He said he would win by a significant margin of two lakh votes.

“That’s what people say,” he said. “There is no casteism here. We are all one people.”

But that kind of exaggerated claim is not out of the norm. In these Bhumihar-dominated parts, there is that old playbook. The Robin Hood figure is the giver and the protector and all bad deeds are forgiven and overlooked because there is always the idea of greater good and here, it seems to be the that idea of a king taking care of his people and rule of law has never been implemented in its truest spirit in Bihar because of the lack of political will and vested interests. It doesn’t matter how many cases are against him. They must be all conspiracies to tarnish his image, one villager said.

He didn’t come from poverty, so there was always money. But how has his wealth multiplied over the years? According to his affidavit, the JD(U) candidate owns movable and immovable assets worth Rs 37.88 crore and his wife, the former MLA who fought on a RJD ticket when Anant Singh was in jail in 2022 and later switched to JD(U), has around Rs 63 crore.

“He works hard,” the man says. “It doesn’t work like that here. You need to know the story of Mokama.”

That he is somewhat of a legend is not an exaggeration again. That he is. For the upper castes here who have always found themselves pitched against the backward classes in a war of identity and entitlement, Anant Singh represents that upper caste feudal lord.

In Mokama, it has always been bullets that have decided the outcomes of elections and disputes.

The priest was right.

The war was coming. And now, the region waits for what happens next. From experience, they know that this isn’t the first time or the last time. They know it is best to be quiet. The rules of the jungle apply here.