Bihar’s Neta-Don Marries at a ‘Inauspicious Period’ for the Lok Sabha Poll Ticket: How ‘Mrs Bahubalis’ Are Used as Proxies

With the Lok Sabha Election of 2024 rapidly approaching, Ashok Mahto, a convicted criminal from Nawada district, is the talk of the political corridors in Bihar due to his hurried marriage. Mahto married during “kharmas,” an unlucky time, in an attempt to acquire political influence. The sixty-year-old Mahato married Kumari Anita, 46, on Tuesday. Mahato cannot dispute his own release from prison last year, having served 17 years for his role in a 2001 Nawada jailbreak case.

In order for a family member to challenge JD (U) heavyweight Rajiv Ranjan, also known as Lalan Singh, for the Munger Lok Sabha seat, the strongman is requesting an RJD ticket. Mahto will not get a ticket for himself since a convicted felon is not allowed to run for office again for six years after the conclusion of his sentence.

In order to “seek his blessings,” he and his new wife saw RJD president Lalu Prasad on Wednesday in Patna. Though Mahato informed reporters during the meeting that Lalu had not provided him with any “assurance” about the party ticket, it is still unclear whether the muscleman’s wife would be able to pursue a career in politics.

ASHOK MAHTO: WHO IS HE?
After serving 17 years in prison, renowned Bihar criminal gang leader Ashok Mahto strolled out of the facility. Mahto was charged in many incidents, including the Nawada jailbreak, the Apsardh and BDPO murders in Nawada, and the murder of P. Raju Singh in Sheikhpura, Manipur. On December 10, 2023, he was let go.

Following the publication of the online serial Khakee: The Bihar Chapter in 2022, Mahto gained a lot of attention. The series tells the narrative of Mahto’s criminal gang and is supposedly based on a novel authored by IPS officer Amit Lodha.

EVERYTHING ABOUT MAHTO’S NEW BRIDE ANITA
Anita, 46, is the daughter of Hari Mehta, who lives in the Suryagarha block in Lakhisarai’s Bansipur Hemjapur region. She is employed in Delhi at a private company. Engineer Hari Prasad Sahni, her father, was a PWD. On Tuesday evening, she and Mahto exchanged vows at the Karauta Jagdamba Mandir in Bakhtiyarpur, Patna.

While Ashok Mahto is a member of the Dhanuk Kurmi community, Anita Samsabar is a member of the Kurmi community.

BIHARI BAHUBALI WIVES’ HISTORY
Interestingly, though, Mahto’s marriage was not the only hurried election-season marriage; Ajay Singh, another “Bahubali,” also got married during the unfavorable “Pitrapaksha” period, when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar denied him a JD (U) ticket to run in the Daunda by-election because of his criminal record.

A by-election was held in Daunda in 2011 in response to the passing of Singh’s mother, MLA Jagmato Devi. Since Ajay was being prosecuted in many criminal instances at the time, JD-U was hesitant to let him run in the by-election. Ultimately, he married Kavita Singh at a temple after she became victorious in the JD (U) by-election. Later, she defeated Hina Sahab, the wife of convicted don and four-time MP Muhammad Shahabuddin, to win a seat in the Lok Sabha from Siwan.

The political scene in Bihar, where politicians with muscle, such as Muhammad Shahabuddin, Anand Mohan Singh, Anant Singh, Pappu Yadav, and Surajbham, rose to prominence, has always included guns and thugs.

However, as time went on and many of them were found guilty, they turned to more secure paths, such as governance by proxy. As a consequence, the state has seen the emergence of a new class of politicians—kin of Bahubalis—who are mostly their spouses as well as some brothers and sons.

Two Rajputs got into a brawl in the Maharajganj Lok Sabha seat in 2029. The son of Bahubali and former parliamentarian Prabhunath Singh, Randhir Singh of the RJD, was matched against the BJP’s Janardan Singh Sigriwal. A murder case has resulted in Prabhunath’s conviction.

Meanwhile, the Congress nominated Neelam Devi, the notorious Anant Singh’s wife, for the Munger seat. In Munger, Singh is referred to as “Chhote Sarkar,” and his fashion choices and horseback riding craze have drawn attention from the media.

In the Nawada seat, there was also a proxy war between Chandan Kumar of the LJP, who is the brother of RJD strongman Suraj Bhan Singh, and Vibha Devi, the wife of former RJD MLA and strongman Raj Ballabh Prasad, who is now incarcerated for the rape of a young girl.