Bihar Elections 2025: Gangster-turned candidate Anant Singh vs Surajbhan Singh's legacy — Why Mokama matters in state polls

Come Thursday (November 6), Bihar will hold its first phase of voting in the assembly elections and all the focus will be on the small but politically hot seat of Mokama located in the Patna district. The constituency is not an ordinary one. Mokama has been a place where the exercise of power and the winning of votes combine, where elections depend more on personal relations and loyalties than they do on the political and the promises made. This time the seat has again been the talk of the town — but for the same old reasons: a rivalry that is based on blood, politics, and status.

Why Mokama is important?

The political history of Mokama is just like the history of Bihar. The seat, about 90 kilometers from Patna, is in the Bhumihar-dominated area, which has produced strongmen who have won people's respect — and sometimes scare— for a long time. Mokama has always been a litmus test of power in Central Bihar. Its possessor not only gets an assembly seat but also a strong position over a politically volatile area that has a direct impact on several neighbouring constituencies. Mokama has become a metaphor in recent times for the state’s democracy being influenced still by “powerful criminal” politics, a mixture of power, crime, and community influence.

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Anant Singh: From gangster to politician

The eye of the Mokama storm is Anant Singh, the candidate of the Janata Dal (United). Known as “Chhote Sarkar”, Singh’s name is associated with both fear and admiration. Singh has been elected a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Mokama four times and at one time had a very close contact with the current Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who often was referred to as his muscleman in the area. However, over the years, Singh's increasing power and his long list of criminal cases turned him into a controversial person even in his party.

In October 2025, just before the elections, Anant Singh was arrested in connection to the death of Jan Suraaj worker, Dularchand Yadav. The murder took place in a small area called Mokama, where Yadav, a leader from Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj movement, was shot dead. As per the police, the murder of Yadav took place amidst the fight between the Jan Suraaj party supporters and Anant Singh's supporters. The JD(U) candidate was charged with serious offenses like murder and criminal conspiracy and was arrested. His arrest has not only caused turmoil in his campaign but also has cast a shadow over the election with the “strongman politics” issue being raised.

On the contrary, Singh still has the loyalty of some voters who view him as the guardian of the locality— the one who “gets things done,” albeit by using force. His supporters label the case as politically motivated and claim that it was deliberately orchestrated to diminish his electoral prospects. For many residents of Mokama, Anant Singh is a representation of both the shadow and the persistent reality of the political scene in Bihar— a man who’s got the fear of many and the respect of the “Robin Hood” believers.

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Veena Devi: The legacy challenger

Coming up against him is Veena Devi, the candidate from RJD, and she is the wife of former Member of Parliament (MP), Surajbhan Singh, who was another heavyweight from the same Bhumihar-dominated area. The candidacy of Veena Devi has turned Mokama into a battlefield of two legacies — both based on power and influence, but now fighting under different political colours.

Veena Devi herself is not unfamiliar with politics. She has been an MP from Munger and has been actively participating in local politics for a long time with her husband. The main theme of her campaign has been “nyay aur vikas” — justice and development — and at the same time, through her family's long political contributions to the region, she is reminding the voters. For RJD, Veena Devi is the personification of both continuity and change — continuity because of the Surajbhan family’s very strong local network; and change due to her promise to take Mokama elections out of the violence and intimidation that have been the hallmarks of the elections in the region.

With her rallies, she has been able to attract huge crowds, particularly among women and younger voters, who regard her as a gentler yet equally strong counterpart to the JD(U) based on physical power. But still, the emotional burden of the Anant Singh name makes her path ahead pretty tough.

Battleground Mokama

Not only a constituency battle, but the Mokama election has also assumed a much larger role. It is considered as a test case for Bihar’s political morality —to what extent a candidate having serious criminal accusations could still influence the voters? Would the traditional power and the local strength overshadow the demand for honest governance? The JD(U) party feels that it is their pride to hold on to Mokama in spite of the controversies. For the RJD, the defeat of JD(U) here through Veena Devi would be a strong signal sent before the later phases of polling.