An infamous crime lord, a shotgun wedding, and a political debut? Bihar waits, RJD mulls

AFTER 17 years in jail, Ashok Mahato appears to have hit some pretty lucky breaks. First came the well-received web series titled ‘Khakee: The Bihar Chapter’, based on his life of crime and terror in Sheikhpura and Nawada between 1990 and 2006, till conviction in a case of jailbreak. Then came the wedding bells – a year after his release – with Mahato, 62, getting married to the much-younger Kumari Anita, 46, in Bakhtiyarpur on Tuesday.

Now comes the twist. The buzz is that, behind Mahato’s sudden betrothal, is a possible RJD ticket from the Munger Lok Sabha seat. If Mahato can’t contest, given his conviction, putting him out of the electoral race till 2029, his wife surely can.

That would pit the debutant Anita opposite JD(U) sitting MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh – whose story incidentally has run a different course compared to Mahato’s lately, after a falling out with JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar.

One of the first stops that Mahato and Anita – originally from Lakhisarai, but lately a resident of Delhi – made after their wedding was the Patna residence of RJD chief Lalu Prasad and wife Rabri Devi, to seek their “blessings”. Mahato called it a “courtesy meeting”, but RJD sources admitted it was more than that.

The RJD is looking to field at least five-six Koeri-Kurmi OBC candidates in the coming Lok Sabha polls to cut into Nitish Yadav’s “Luv-Kush” vote bank besides shed its own image of being an exclusively “MY (Muslim-Yadav)” party. Mahato, originally from Nawada, is a Kurmi.

On his release from Bhagalpur prison last year, after serving 17 years over a 2001 jailbreak case, Mahato said he had “forgotten how to speak” during the long stint behind bars. But, he minced no words attacking CM Nitish Kumar, blaming him for