Two days after Anant Singh’s arrest in the only serious incident of violence in the Bihar Assembly elections, the JD(U) candidate and bahubali dominates the Mokama contest – in letter and spirit. On the final day of campaigning for the first phase on November 6, senior JD(U) leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh canvassed with NDA supporters, who held a poster, saying: ‘Main bhi Anant (I too am Anant)’.Anant Singh, who has over 50 charges against him and has kept the Mokama seat within the family since 2005, was held late on Saturday night on charges of murder, over the death of another strongman, Dularchand Yadav, in a political clash.AdvertisementThe same day as he began his campaign, Monday, Lalan Singh stirred a row by reportedly telling supporters at Shivnar village: “There are one-two leaders. Don’t let them come out on the day of voting… And if they beg you, accompany them and make them vote (as you want).” On Tuesday, an FIR was lodged against Singh by the Patna District Magistrate on the charge of making “provocative” remarks.On a dais in Mokama where the backdrop is a collage of three portraits of Anant Singh, wearing his trademark dark glasses in all the frames, there are few signs of the charges disturbing the party.The top left corner of the collage carries small photos of all the top five NDA leaders – Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, LJP (RV) chief Chirag Paswan, Rashtriya Lok Morcha head Upendra Kushwaha, and HAM (S) patron and Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. The top right, with a photo of Lalan Singh, has the slogan “Mokama hai taiyyar, 14 November, NDA sarkar (Mokama is ready, for November 14 and an NDA government)”.AdvertisementGathered around the ground are enthusiastic supporters, suggesting that his arrest may have only made the contest easier for Anant Singh. Upper caste Bhumihar voters, agitated over the abuses flung at them at a protest by Dularchand’s supporters, appear to be rallying behind the strongman.The community, which has almost always won from Mokama, dominates at around 85,000 of the population. Next come the EBC Dhankuks, Kahar and Kurmis, at 55,000. The EBCs as well as Rajputs, at 15,000, and the 10,000 Scheduled Caste Paswans are all considered NDA supporters.The Yadavs, numbering 45,000, may not prove enough for the RJD. While its candidate Veena Devi is the wife of another Bhumihar don and political dynast from Mokama, Surajbhan Singh, the community may now go wholeheartedly with Anant Singh.As the Lalan Singh convoy kicks off, for areas with a mixed population of castes, NDA workers raise gusty slogans of “Lalan Singh zindabad” and “Chhote Sarkar zindabad”. “Chote Sarkar” is a moniker given to Anant Singh, with his late elder brother and former Mokama MLA Dilip Singh known as “Bade Sarkar”.As he reaches Mahendrapur along the Mokama-Barhaiya Road, supporters use JCBs to sprinkle flowers on Lalan Singh. It is a rising phenomenon in the Bihar elections, copied from BJP leader Yogi Adityanath’s rallies in neighbouring UP. Adityanath, one of the BJP’s star campaigners for Bihar, has been talking of his government’s “toughness” on crime, with bulldozers underlining this message.Lalan Singh emerges with folded hands, and tells the crowds: “Anant Singh is not here, but all of you are Anant Singh. Stay united and ensure that there is no one-sided polling.”At Marachi village a few kilometres away, he makes a similar appeal, as an impressive crowd waits to hear him.He halts next at Rampur-Dumra, where several JD(U) workers are holding up “Main bhi Anant” posters. Party leaders say over one lakh such posters were printed soon after Anant Singh’s arrest to send “a message of solidarity among NDA cadres”. In his speech, Lalan Singh criticises “the kind of language used in Pandarak (against fellow Bhumihars)”, and says “this must be punished with overwhelming support to Anant Singh”.A villager says that is a given. “Now even people who are close to RJD nominee Veena Devi and her husband Surajbhan may vote for Anant Singh.”Lalan Singh’s cavalcade heads for the border of Mokama and Lakhisarai Assembly segments. At Mahgawa village, Hemant Kumar says: “I am a hardcore Lalan Singh supporter… How can anyone make a slur against the entire community (referring to the protest over Dularchand’s death)?”It’s Mokama’s second roadshow for the day, a few hours after Veena Devi’s. The RJD candidate talked about “lawlessness” in Mokama.The former Munger MP, who travelled in an open car, was mobbed by scores of motorcycle-bound supporters. But Veena Devi chose to stay inside the car, waving to the public and accepting garlands and stoles from her supporters.There is hardly any discussion about Jan Suraaj candidate Piyush Priyadarshi, who has focused on EBC-dominated regions in his campaign. Dularchand was canvassing for Priyadarshi when killed.Earlier in the RJD, Priyadarshi split with the party after the Mokama ticket went to Surajbhan’s wife Veena Devi. A Mokama resident says that since Dularchand’s killing, “some videos of him making objectionable comments against Anant Singh and his wife Neelam Devi” have surfaced. “It could have shown seeds of animosity between Dularchand and Anant Singh,” he says.Not that many are surprised. Anand Murari, a Mokama resident who has been a close witness to the mix of crime and politics of the seat, says: “Anant Singh has now won as a candidate of the JD(U), RJD, and as an Independent, and clearly has the support of the poor due to his acts of benevolence… Plus, the caste and social combination reigns supreme here. Anant Singh wins because upper castes, non-Yadav OBCs and a fair chunk of Dalits rally around him.”Murari regrets that no party has “tried to move beyond strongmen and give people a better choice” in Mokama. “And when the JD(U) fielded clean candidates like Neeraj Kumar (2015) and Rajiv Lochan (2020), it did not work.”The Congress too has a past here. Anant Singh’s elder brother Dilip Singh worked as a muscleman of Congress leader Shyam Sunder Dheeraj, till he emerged out of his shadow and won in 1990 as a Janata Dal nominee to become the state’s first bahubali to be inducted as a minister.In 2000, the political mantle of Mokama passed on to Surajbhan, who won the seat and backed Nitish Kumar as CM. In 2004, Surajbhan moved on as the MP, and Anant Singh filled the gap.The Anant Singh-Dularchand rivalry has another layer: of the expansion of bahubali culture from the upper castes between 1970 and 1990, to OBC bahubalis in RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s reign.Dularchand in Mokama, Bhangar Yadav and Sattan Yadav in West Champaran, Ranbir Yadav in Khagaria, Dadan Pahalwan in Buxar and Brijbihari Prasad in Muzaffarpur all rose in its wake.