Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, September 25
The next assembly of Bihar would probably miss the dreaded criminals and Bahubalis rolling up their sleeves inside the House.
For, the coming assembly elections in Bihar will be contested for the first time in the absence of Bahubalis as majority of the dreaded outlaws are in jail.
Lalu Prasad Yadav, RJD president is undergoing seven years imprisonment in Ranchi jail following his conviction in the Rs 900 crore fodder scam.
Bihar during the three-phase elections starting October 28 may miss the musclemen as candidates following the strict regulations put by the Election Commission directing the candidates with criminal antecedents to display their criminal cases thrice in the local newspapers prior to the date of polling.
Till now, the details of the criminal cases were shown only in the affidavits filed by the candidates before the returning officers.
Mohammad Shahbuddin, who was MP and MLA from Siwan several terms is now lodged in Tihar jail. He used to influence the electorate through terror even while imprisoned in Bhagalpur jail. His wife Heena had also contested the elections in his absence but she lost.
Another Babubali leader Anand Mohan Singh, who was also former MP in along with his wife Lovely Anand is in Saharasa jail following life sentence awarded in the case related to murder of the district magistrate of Gopalganj. He was once part of Janata Party and later floated his own People’s Party. Both husband and wife were elected to Lok Sabha simultaneously. His wife was convicted in the murder case by the district sessions judge but later acquitted by High Court.
Anant Singh, the Chhote Sarkar in Janata Dal is in Bhagalpur jail in murder and loot cases. He was shifted from Patna’s Beur central jail. He had established a terror regime in Momakam-Barh belt and successfully contested as an independent candidate in 2015 when Nitish Kumar denied him ticket.
Suraj Bhan and Rama Singh, who once were known as Bahubalis are now in the LJP. Since there is a ban on Suraj Bhan on contesting elections, he had fielded his wife and later his nephew as LJP candidates in the Lok Sabha elections and both were elected.
Sunil Pandey,the former JDU MLA who is also disqualified to contest the elections is famous in Shahabad belt for his anti-social activities had fielded his wife in the 2015 elections as LJP candidate, but she lost to the CPI(ML) candidate.
Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav who was also member of Lok Sabha along with his wife Ranjeeta Ranjan was jailed in case of murder of a CPM MLA Ajit Sarkar. He too was lodged in Tihar jail. Now, he has floated his own Jan Adhikar party and unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. His supporters on Friday clashed with the BJP workers during the Bharat Bandh against the farmers’ bill.
In the 2015 assembly elections, out of 243 MLAs, 142 had criminal cases pending against them. RJD with 46 topped the list of MLAs with criminal pasts. RJD with 80 MLAs had formed a government with JDU in 2015.
The poll panel announced that voting for the first, second and the third and final phase will be held on October 28, November 3 and 7 respectively while counting of votes will take place on November 10.
