A year since the release of her husband, Bihar’s strongman leader Anand Mohan Singh, Lovely Anand is in the electoral fray from Sheohar seat on a Janata Dal (United) ticket as a National Democratic Alliance candidate. Mr. Singh, who was in jail for 16 years, was released when JD(U) supremo and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar tweaked the State prison code to expedite his remission in case of IAS officer G. Krishnaiah’s murder. In the midst of the electoral fray, Ms. Anand took the opportunity to defend her husband by asserting that he was not a “bahubali” (potentate) but a “kalambali” (penman)
“It is the media which has given the term bahubali for my husband,” she told The Hindu before embarking on her electoral campaign on April 19. “Had my husband been born during British period, he would have been a krantikari [revolutionary],” Ms. Anand, who had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2015 Assembly elections unsuccessfully from Sheohar, claimed.
Mr. Singh, a native of Saharsa district, some 195 kms from Sheohar - the smallest districts of Bihar after Sheikhpura - was found guilty of inciting a mob that had stoned, assaulted, and finally gunned down the then Gopalganj District Magistrate G. Krishnaiah in Muzaffarpur in December 1994. Mr. Singh was condemned to death by the lower court in 2007. However, his sentence was later brought down to a life term by the Patna High Court in December 2008. Mr. Singh moved to the Supreme Court for further relief but the top court upheld the High Court’s verdict. In April 2023, however, Mr. Singh was released from jail after 16 years of incarceration after the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government amended the prison manual 2012, Rule 481 (1)(a) by removing the clause pertaining to “murder of a public servant on duty”. The State government’s action had triggered a massive backlash from the Bharatiya Janata Party, which at the time which was in the Opposition. Mr. Krishnaiah’s widow had also challenged the Bihar government’s move in the Supreme Court, where the case is still pending.
