Anant Kumar Singh is an Indian politician and a former MLA from the

Mokama assembly constituency Mokama Assembly constituency is one of 243 constituencies of Bihar Legislative Assembly, legislative assembly of Bihar. It is a part of Munger (Lok Sabha constituency), Munger Lok Sabha constituency. Mokama is in the 14 assembly segments which f ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

. A former member of the

Janata Dal (United) Janata Dal (United) ("People’s Party (United)”) abbreviated as JD(U) is an Indian political party with political presence mainly in eastern and north-eastern India. JD(U) is recognised as a state party in the states of Bihar , Arunachal Pra ...

party, he joined

Rashtriya Janata Dal The Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD; translation: ''National People's Party'') is an Indian political party, based in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Kerala. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav. The party's support base has tradit ...

in 2020. According to his election affidavit of 2020, he is facing 38 criminal charges including 7 murders, 11 attempt-to-murder and 4 cases of kidnapping.

Life and career

Singh was born in the village of Nadawan falling under Barh CD block,

to Chandradeep Singh. He belongs to Bhumihar family. He contested and won from the Mokama assembly seat in 2005 on a JDU ticket. He retained the seat in 2010, defeating Sonam Devi of

Lok Janshakti Party The Lok Janshakti Party ( LJP, "People’s Manpower Party") was a state political party mainly based in the state of Bihar, India. The party was formed in 2000 when Ram Vilas Paswan split from Janata Dal. The party had a considerable followin ...

(LJP) by a large margin. He is married to

Nilam Devi Nilam Devi, also Neelam Devi (born 1973), is an Indian politician representing Mokama assembly constituency in the Bihar Legislative Assembly. She was elected as a member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly in 2022 by-election, after disqualificati ...

. On 2 September 2015, Singh quit the JDU following a fall-out with leader

Nitish Kumar Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician, who is serving as Chief Minister of Bihar since 22 February 2015, having previous held the office from 2005 to 2014 and for a short period in 2000. The leader of the Janata Dal (Unite ...

over the JDU's new alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal. On 16 August 2019, Singh was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act after the police took possession of an AK-47 rifle, a magazine, live cartridges and two hand grenades following a raid on his ancestral home in Ladma village of Patna district. In 2020, Singh was given a ticket from Rashtriya Janata Dal to contest in the upcoming Bihar legislative election. He won from the Mokama constituency with 35,291 votes, winning for the seat for the fourth consecutive time.

Criminal cases and influence

Singh has numerous cases of murder, kidnapping, and

land grabbing Land grabbing is the contentious issue of large-scale land acquisitions: the buying or leasing of large pieces of land by domestic and transnational companies, governments, and individuals. While used broadly throughout history, land grabbing as ...

lodged against him. The Barh region has remained notorious for dreaded caste wars particularly between two Forward Castes of Bihar, the

Bhumihar Bhumihars, also called Babhan, are a Hindu caste mainly found in Bihar (including the Mithila region), the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, and Nepal. The Bhumihars claim Brahmin statu ...

s and

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

s. In these wars he emerged as a saviour of his community. According to locals, people in this region refrain from going outside during night due to fear of being kidnapped or murdered. The fortune of Singh turned when

, decided to nominate him as his candidate on the ticket of

from the Mokama constituency. It was considered as paradoxical by a section of media that Kumar who vowed to end 'criminalisation of politics' was backing such a person against whom charges of serious cognizable offences were lodged. But, amidst criticism and counter statements Singh managed to win from Mokama seat due to support of his castemen as well as the wave of Nitish Kumar. Singh has been three times MLA from Mokama. Singh's activities dragged the nation's attention when in 2007 he was reported to have two journalists from NDTV 24×7 and ''ANI'' news as hostages in his official bungalow. It was reported that they had been there to interview Singh upon his involvement in murder and molestation of a woman called Reshma Khatoon whose body was recovered in a sack near the capital. The political protection given to Singh and another gangster named

Sunil Pandey Narendra Kumar Pandey, popularly known as Sunil Pandey, is an Indian politician from Bihar. He was first elected in 2000 in the Piro constituency for the Samta Party Samta may refer to: *Samta, India, a village and a gram panchayat in Howrah, ...

by the ruling regime was aimed at mobilisation of

caste. According to the locals, Singh who was known as ''Chhote Sarkar'' () in Mokama is a role model of Bhumihars, who consistently opposed

Laloo Yadav Lalu Prasad Yadav (born 11 June 1948) is an Indian politician and president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). He is a former Chief Minister of Bihar (1990-1997), a former Railway Minister of India (2004-2009), and a former Member of Parliamen ...

's regime. Thus, political parties opposing Yadav used him as a tool to mobilise Bhumihar voters. Singh was also allegedly involved in kidnapping of four youths, who as per allegations were responsible for eve-teasing of a girl, latter being sister of one of Singh's men. As per news reports, the four youths were kidnapped and assaulted allegedly by the goons of Singh and one of them named Puttus Yadav was killed brutally.

Arrest

Singh was arrested in 2015, in connection with a kidnapping and murder case. While he was being taken to Secretariat police station in Patna, he started giving interview to media. In the meantime, city SP of Patna

Chandan Kushwaha Chandan Kumar Kushwaha is an IPS officer, serving in Bihar. He has previously served as Superintendent of Police (SP) for Bihar's capital city Patna. Kushwaha was later transferred to Banka district as Superintendent of Police. Before being appoin ...

arrived and he asked Singh to avoid talking to media, however, Singh continued to do so. In response to this, Kushwaha dragged him and tried to take him inside Police Station forcefully. Singh also became adamant and confronted him. As a result of this both men were reported pushing and shoving each other in front of media and Police force. After arrival of Senior Supritendent of Police, Vikash Vaibhav situation was controlled.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Anant 1960s births Bihar MLAs 2005–2010 Bihar MLAs 2010–2015 Living people Janata Dal (United) politicians Crime in Bihar Indian prisoners and detainees People from Patna district Year of birth missing (living people) Rashtriya Janata Dal politicians Bihar MLAs 2020–2025 Indian politicians convicted of crimes