Patna: They were once fierce rivals for power in the gangs of Bihar in the 1990s. but the relationship between bahubali politicians Pappu Yadav and Anand Mohan Singh are seen changing colours.
Speculation about the two “getting together” has been rife ever since Yadav was photographed attending the wedding of Singh’s daughter on February 15. Anand Mohan Singh, then out on parole, was seen in Shaadi chatting with Yadav, with whom he had once competed for supremacy in Bihar’s Kosi region.
Singh has recently been in the news for his premature release from jail after the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar changed a rule in the Bihar Jail Manual. he was serving a life sentence abetment to murder 1994 IAS officer G Krishnaiah, who was then the District Magistrate of Gopalganj, and spent 15 years in jail.
Asked what made him soften his stance against Anand MohanYadav told ThePrint on Monday, “The fight now is to save democracy. The BJP government at the Center never talks about increasing employment and income of the poor. It is just trying to divide the country on communal lines and harassing the opposition with its agencies. We both will fight to save democracy. Traditionally, Rajputs have been with socialist ideology.”
The 55-year-old Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) chief said his differences with Anand Mohan were purely ideological. “I supported a section which believed that Dalits should get their due, and believed that this harmed the interests of the classes they represented,” he asserted. Said that both Anand Mohan and he belong to the families of freedom fighters.
“Why is the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) opposing his (Anand Mohan’s) release?” Yadav asked, pointing out that Singh had already spent 15 years behind bars. The BJP was demanding his release. was with Anand Mohan Vajpayee Yes when he was the PM,” he told ThePrint.
Yadav also appealed to Uma Krishnaiah, wife of slain IAS officer G Krishnaiah, to forgive her husband’s killers, just as Sonia Gandhi forgave former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s killers. Yadav said, “I have always said that the G Krishnaiah case was a circumstantial murder and not motivated.”
Pappu Yadav and Anand Mohan Singh
In the context of Bihar, both Yadav and Singh are seen as products of caste tensions that arose after the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations. Thereafter, the two often called each other “Goon (Goons)” and his supporters clashed over the issue of reservation.
Both have criminal cases against them – 40 against Anand Mohan and 31 against Pappu Yadav, who was convicted in the murder of CPI(M) MLA Ajit Sarkar in 1998 but acquitted by the HC in 2013 for lack of evidence Was.
Yadav, A five-Time The MP has in the past roped in the Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) among others. Anand Mohan, a former MLA and former MP, was with the undivided Janata Dal and the Samta Party before he formed the Bihar People’s Party (BPP) in 1993.
Apart from the Congress and the BJP, both Yadav and Singh at one time enjoyed the patronage of prominent political players in Bihar, namely Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad and the late Ram Vilas Paswan.
Both have also managed to get their wives elected to Parliament.
Yadav’s wife Ranjit Ranjan, who is a Congress leader, is currently a Rajya Sabha MP from Chhattisgarh. Prior to this, he served as the party’s MP from the Supaul seat in Bihar in the 16th Lok Sabha (2014–19). Anand Mohan’s wife Lovely Anand, now with the RJD, along with their son Chetan – MLA from Sheohar – was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1994 in a by-election from the Vaishali parliamentary constituency.
In 2009, Lovely Anand contested the Lok Sabha elections from Shivhar and Ranjit Ranjan from Supaul on Congress ticket, but both lost.
,It has been more than three decades of caste tension in the state after the Mandal Commission recommendations were implemented. Former MLC Prem Kumar Mani of Bihar.
Mani, once considered the political guru of CM Nitish Kumar, told ThePrint, “In the early 1990s, both Anand Mohan and Pappu Yadav spread terror in the Kosi region, masquerading as saviors of upper and backward castes respectively. They don’t need those masks anymore because the situation has changed. They will be on the same side in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Mani said the fate of both Yadav and Singh would depend on the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance).
(Editing by Amritansh Arora)
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