Paswan’s fistful

At least 18 of Bihar’s newly elected MLAs have criminal background and of these, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) acc...

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At least 18 of Bihar’s newly elected MLAs have criminal background and of these, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) accounts for five. Most of these ‘‘bahubalis’’ — as they are called in Bihar — have been in politics for long. Paswan endorsed them as his candidates; they have delivered, and how.

Except Rajan Tiwari — who lost Gobindganj reportedly after starting extortion in his own area — all of Paswan’s new recruits have qualified to be lawmakers in the state, though some of them will have to do it from behind bars. Take Dhumal Singh for example. Dhumal, who won Baniapur by 10,000 votes on an LJP ticket, is lodged in Buxar jail. In 2000, he had fought the polls as an Independent. Dhumal started off as an aide to Dhanbad’s coal mafia kingpin Suraj Deo Singh and grew big. Later, he figured in the murder of Suraj Deo Singh. Accused in a number of extortion and murder cases, mostly in Jharkhand, Dhumal’s name did the rounds when a relative of Dawood Ibrahim was killed in Jharkhand.

Rama Kishore Singh has been seen around Paswan, even when he was officially an ‘‘absconder’’. When the powers-that-be went their different ways, Rama Kishore was arrested is now in jail. But he was still able to retain Mahnar, defeating his nearest rival by more than 10,000 votes. Rama Kishore’s historysheet says he specialises in keeping kidnapping victims in safe custody and has links with kidnapping rackets across states.

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Munna Shukla, MLA from Lalganj, is again a permanent fixture beside Paswan. Brother of dreaded north Bihar don Chotan Shukla, he is said to have entered the bad world in order to avenge his brother’s death in a gang war. He, along with Rajan Tiwari and Suraj Bhan Singh, figures in several cases in Bihar, including the murder of CPI(M) MLA Ajit Sarkar. Shukla is out on bail.

Another breed in Paswan’s party are MLAs who lead private armies. Shanker Singh, who won Rupauli in Purnea district, heads the North Bihar Liberation Army, which is working for a separate state. Shanker, now in Buxar jail, defeated RJD’s Bhima Bharati, wife of Avdesh Mandal, who leads another private army, the Faizan Gang. The two gangs are locked in a war of supremacy in the region. Aruna Devi, LJP MLA from Warsaliganj in Nawada, was propped up as the proxy candidate of her husband Akhilesh Singh whose war with another local gang has claimed more than 100 lives in the last six years.