JD(U) expels Anant Singh, wife after he backs rival, seeks his disqualification as MLA

The Janata Dal (United) on Saturday expelled Mokama MLA Anant Kumar Singh and his wife, former MLA Neelam Devi, for six years over alleged anti-party activities after Singh campaigned for Jan Suraaj Party candidate Anuj Singh against the JD(U)’s nominee in the recent Bihar Legislative Council elections.

In an office order, Bihar Janata Dal (United) president Umesh Singh Kushwaha said: “Singh had repeatedly disregarded its directives, used objectionable and insulting language against senior party leaders, and campaigned for a candidate from another party”. Singh’s primary membership was cancelled with immediate effect.

The party has also sought Singh’s disqualification from the Assembly under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which deals with disqualification on grounds of defection. Neelam Devi’s primary membership was also cancelled over her alleged involvement in anti-party activities.

The action follows weeks of friction between Singh and the JD(U) leadership over the Patna Graduates’ constituency election to the Legislative Council. The party fielded sitting MLC Neeraj Kumar, but Singh openly backed Jan Suraaj’s Anuj Singh, campaigning for him and accompanying him during the nomination process.

Singh said he opposed Neeraj because the latter had worked against him in previous elections. “I must pay him back in the same coin,” he said earlier this month. He also questioned why the party had not acted against Neeraj when he allegedly opposed Singh in the past.

Senior JD(U) leaders tried to persuade Singh to support the party’s nominee, but he continued campaigning for Anuj. Voting for the Legislative Council constituencies concluded on Friday, with counting scheduled for October 27.

The dispute was compounded by Singh’s remarks in an interview with a news agency, in which he purportedly claimed to have had nine people murdered while supporting Nitish Kumar during the latter’s early political career. The remarks drew opposition criticism, with Singh later claiming that he had been misunderstood and that nine of his associates had been killed during the previous Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) regime and that he had suffered personal losses after aligning himself with Nitish.

The life and times of ‘Chote Sarkar’

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The expulsion marks another turn in the political career of Singh, popularly known as “Chote Sarkar”, whose influence in Mokama has endured through shifting party affiliations and legal controversies.

Singh won the Mokama Assembly seat on a JD(U) ticket in 2005 and retained it in 2010. He left the party in September 2015 over differences in its alliance with the RJD and won as an Independent. He later joined the RJD and retained the seat in the 2020 Assembly election.

His wife entered electoral politics after Singh’s disqualification from the Assembly in 2022. Following his conviction in an illegal arms case and a 10-year prison sentence, Neelam Devi contested the Mokama by-election on an RJD ticket and won. She had earlier contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Munger on a Congress ticket against JD(U) leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh, alias Lalan Singh. In 2024, she switched to the JD(U) and voted in support of the Nitish Kumar government during a trust vote in the Assembly.

Singh’s 2022 disqualification followed a special court’s conviction in connection with the recovery of an AK-47 rifle, ammunition and hand grenades from his ancestral home in Ladma village in 2019. The Patna High Court acquitted him in the arms cases in August 2024, clearing the way for his return to electoral politics.

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Singh rejoined the JD(U) and contested the November 2025 Assembly election from Mokama. His campaign was overshadowed by the death of Dularchand Yadav, a 75-year-old political worker associated with Jan Suraaj, during a clash involving rival campaign groups on October 30, 2025.

Singh was arrested in the early hours of November 1 in connection with the murder case and remained in custody during the election. He won the seat by 28,206 votes, defeating RJD candidate Veena Devi. The Patna High Court granted him bail in the case in March 2026.

While Singh’s camp clashed with Jan Suraaj supporters during the 2025 Assembly campaign, he has now backed the party’s candidate against his own party’s nominee in the Legislative Council election.

The JD(U) has also removed Mayank Raj as president of its Barh organisational district and dissolved the district committee, according to a separate order issued by Kushwaha.