Who is Anant Singh? As Chhote Sarkar set to hit Mokama for a six in Bihar Assembly polls, a quick revisit to Bhumihar bahubali's chilling past

Janata Dal (United) candidate and former MLA Anant Singh was arrested on November 2 in connection with the murder of Jan Suraaj supporter Dular Chand Yadav. A criminal-turned-politician, Yadav was killed while campaigning in Mokama for the candidate of Prashant Kishor's party. 

 

Anant Singh is himself a 'Bahubali' (colloquial term for strongman) who is not new to being involved in crimes of the highest degree and controversies. He is also a seasoned politician, who has not let his family's grip on Mokama slip since the turn of the century, is notoriously called 'Chhote Sarkar' among followers and rivals alike. This time, he was up against Mahagatbandhan candidate  Veena Devi, the wife of Surajbhan Singh aka Dada -- his nemesis.

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Anant Singh's story, often bloody, is no less than the script of any crime thriller ever written. As the strongman extends his grip on Mokama...

 

Mokama’s history of intense rivalries 

 

 

Located in the eastern periphery of Patna district, Mokama rests at the confluence of the ancient kingdoms of Magadh, Mithila, and Ang. The region on the southern banks of the Ganga has a significant Bhumihar population who have dominated local politics.

 

As 'Bahubalis' began to emerge across the length and breadth of Bihar, the people of Mokama had little idea that they would soon witness and fall prey to a fight for domination, initially between leaders, and eventually, their families.

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On one side was Bhumihar strongman Dilip Singh, native to Ladma village of Barh block, whose family will see many rivals come and go as the years passed by. 

 

 

 

The rise of Dilip Singh and Surajbhan Singh

 

 

 

Dilip Singh, in the hope of making a career out of crime, started working for a smuggler called Kamdev Singh in the 1970s. When Kamdev Singh was murdered, Dilip Singh was his trusted lieutenant and got to inherit his throne. But his destiny changed when he met  young Congress neta Shyam Sundar Singh 'Dheeraj'.

 

 

 

Back in those days, Shyam Sundar Singh 'Dheeraj' was reportedly one of a few Congress leaders in Bihar with direct access to Sanjay Gandhi. It is said that Shyam Sundar Singh's association with Dilip Singh began when he hired him to capture booths for him in the 1980 elections. This was not a rare practice in Bihar back then, and Dilip's muscle power was among the factors that helped the Congress leader to become a Cabinet Minister. (When asked about their association in January 2025, Dheeraj Singh will go on to claim that Dilip Singh's family were ardent communists during the elections of 1985.)

 

In 1990, the Congress leader was shocked when Dilip Singh stood for polls on a Janata Dal ticket from Mokama in 1990 and won by over 20,000 votes — refusing him a third term. The feat did not go unnoticed by Lalu Prasad Yadav, who elevated him with a ministerial berth. When the duo faced off again in 1995, further humiliation awaited Dheeraj Singh as his former muscleman emerged the winner again.

 

However, just when Dilip thought he had established his name as the unchallenged leader of the region, the nemesis arrived at the scene. 33-year-old Surajbhan Singh, also a Mokama native, made a name for himself when he was named an accused of the murder of Brij Behari Prasad, a sitting minister in the Bihar government.

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Surajbhan Singh, too, like Dilip, entered the crime world young by joining the infamous extortion rackets of Bihar. However, he became a dreaded figure for the murder of Rami Singh, a resident of Madhurapur village in Begusarai district in 1992. His father died by suicide when he understood his son had no intention to come back from the world of crime. A few days later, his brother, a CRPF jawan, too, ended his life of heartbreak. However, none of this generated any remorse in him, who was hellbent on reaching greater heights through any means possible, Mrityunjay Sharma said in his book 'Broken Promises: Caste, Crime and Politics in Bihar'.

 

Dilip Singh was mentored by Shyam Sundar Singh to help secure votes through intimidation, and similarly, Surajbhan became Dilip's apprentice. Following the same path, Surajbhan eventually turned on his master, becoming a rebel just as Dilip had done! By then, Surajbhan Singh had become a dreaded figure in the Barh-Begusarai region with 26 criminal cases against his name across UP and Bihar. The two men clashed in 2000, and in an ironic repeat of history, the debutant, who ran as an Independent, thumped him by a big margin.

 

Anant Singh's era of political domination

 

 

Reading the writing on the wall, Dilip Singh decided to back off gradually and passed away in 2006 due to a heart attack. This led to the arrival of Anant Singh, Dilip's younger brother, to the scene — who wasted no time to challenge Surajbhan in a manner no stranger to Mokama.

 

"Anant Singh, the youngest of four brothers, would be the sole one to survive by 2008. While Dilip Singh succumbed to a heart attack in 2006, his other two brothers fell victim to the intense rivalry in the region. Legend has it that Anant Singh swam across a river and gunned down his brother's killers. He was greatly feared as his reputation spread far and wide. The youngest of his brothers, he soon began to be referred to as 'Chhote Sarkar'," Mrityunjay Sharma writes in his book.  Locals often say that while “Bihar has Nitish sarkar, but Mokama has Chhote Sarkar”. He got the name since his elder brother, Dilip was known as ‘Bade Sarkar’.

 

Singh would wrest back the Mokama seat for his family in 2005, contesting on a JD(U) ticket and winning it consecutively six times till the last Assembly by-election in 2022 (Surajbhan Singh will soon join the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and become a Lok Sabha MP before being debarred from contesting due to conviction in the Rami Singh farmer murder case.) The Sarkar brothers' clashes with other gangsters and political rivals over the decades will lead to scores of deaths over the years. The list includes not just trained hitmen on either side but also innocent individuals who happened to be on the wrong side of them.

 

 

A blood-soaked legacy

 

By 2005, Janata Dal had split, and Nitish Kumar's JD(U) had started calling the shots in Patna. Ever since he reclaimed the seat, Anant Singh managed six consecutive wins there till the last Assembly by-election in 2022. Nitish Kumar, the anti-Jungle Raj crusader, will go on to be criticised for his alleged association with Anant Singh. As of 2024, he has 52 cases against his name, ranging from abduction and murder to violations of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). In 2019, Patna Police recovered an AK-47 and hand grenades from his residence following a raid.

 

"Anant Singh became Nitish's man Friday and continued to be so till 2015, before a fallout happened between the two over the BJP-JD(U) breaking their alliance and RJD, an arch-rival of Anant Singh, coming into the picture. Nitish, amidst his campaign for a terror-free Bihar, would often be criticised for this association. In a testament to his popularity, Anant Singh contested the 2015 Assembly election as an Independent and won it. He would go on to win the 2020 Assembly elections too on his arch-rival RJD's ticket. The party symbol did not matter to him," 'Broken Promises: Caste, Crime and Politics in Bihar' said.

 

When he was disqualified in 2022, following his conviction in an arms recovery case, Singh pulled a trick straight from Lalu Yadav's shelves — fielding his wife Neelam Devi in the by-election from Mokama.

 

When he submitted his affidavit, it declared that he owns movable and immovable assets worth Rs 37.88 crore. His wife owns movable and immovable assets worth Rs 62.72 crore.

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