Bihar Elections: The Close Connection of Crime and Politics

Patna: Crime and politics have a close connection in Bihar if candidates in the fray are anything to go by.

Once dreaded ‘bahubalis’ (strongmen), such as the ruling Janata Dal-United’s (JD-U) candidate Anant Singh, jailed Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Ritlal Yadav and wife, son and daughter of other bahubalis, are in the fray for next month’s two-phase Bihar Assembly polls.

Once again, this time Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is also president of JD-U, a major ally of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has fielded former MLA Anant Singh, locally known as ‘chhote sarkar’ for his muscle power, from the Mokama Assembly seat in Patna district. He is being challenged by another bahubali Surajbhan Singh's wife Veena Devi. Both Anant and Surajbhan are facing several serious criminal cases and have served jail terms as well.

Then incumbent JD-U has also fielded bahubalis, such as  Dhumal Singh from Ekma seat, Amrendar Pandey from Kuchaikot seat, Chetan Anand, son of dreaded bahubali Anand Mohan Singh, from Nabinagar seat ,Vibha Devi, wife of Rajbhallabh Yadav and Radha Charan Seth from the Sandesh seat.

The BJP has fielded Vishal Parshant Pandey, son of Sunil Pandey, a criminal-turned-politician and a bahubali, from Tarari Assembly seat in Bhojpur. Other BJP candidates with similar backgrounds are Aruna Devi, wife of dreaded bahubali Akhilesh Singh from Warsaliganj, Rakesh Ojha from Shahpur seat and Kedarnath Singh from Baniyapur seat.

BJP's ally Lok Janshakti party (Ramvilas) of Union Minister Chirag Paswan has fielded Hulas Pandey, a Bahubali, from Barhampur seat.

The Opposition RJD is also not lagging. The party has fielded Anita Devi, wife of dreaded bahubali Ashok Mahto from Warsaliganj, Shivani Shukhla, daughter of jailed bahubali Munna Shukhla from Lalganj seat,Osama Sahab,son of late Bahubali Mohammad Shahabuddin from Raghunathpur seat.

With the election campaign all set to pick up from October 29 after the four-days long Chhath festival, the latest report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Bihar Election Watch revealed that of the 1,303 candidates contesting from 121 Assembly constituencies in the first phase of polls (November 6), as many as 423 (32%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. 

According to ADR, which has analysed the self-sworn affidavits submitted to the Election Commission, 1,303 out of 1,314 candidates, 354(27%) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. There are 33 candidates who have declared cases of murder (IPC Section-302, 303) and (BNS Section-103(1)). Similarly, 86 candidates are facing cases related to attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) and (BNS Section-109).

Also, 42 candidates have declared cases related to crimes against women. Out of these 42 candidates, two have declared cases related to rape (IPC Section-376). 

The ADR report said that among the major parties, RJD has 76%, followed by BJP and Congress with 65% each, LJP (Ram Vilas) with 54%, JD(U) with 39%, and AAP with 27% candidates facing criminal charges.

Notably, Jan Suraaj, contesting its first election while promising electoral reforms, is not far behind with 44% (50 out of 114) of its candidates having declared criminal cases, the ADR said.

Among the Left parties, CPI and CPI(M) fielded 100% (3 out of 3), and CPI(ML) fielded 93% of such candidates, the report said.

A total of 91 (75%) out of 121 constituencies are ‘red alert’ constituencies -- those where 3 or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

The ADR highlighted the fact that the directions of the Supreme Court have had no effect on the political parties in selection of candidates in the Bihar Assembly Elections 2025, which have “again followed their old practice of giving tickets to around 32% candidates with criminal cases.”, said ADR.

The Supreme Court in its directions dated February 13, 2020, had specifically instructed political parties to give reasons for such selection and why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates. As per these mandatory guidelines, the reasons for such selection have to be with reference to qualifications, achievements and merit of the candidate concerned.

During the Delhi Assembly elections held in February 2025, it was observed that political parties gave unfounded and baseless reasons like popularity of the person, does good social work, cases are politically motivated etc. These are not sound and cogent reasons for fielding candidates with tainted backgrounds, ADR said.