After 17 Yrs in Jail, This Bihar Bahubali Gets Married at the Age for 62 for 'Lok Sabha Polls' | Know His Story

Ashok Mahto, a noted Bihar criminal gang leader, walked out of a Bihar jail after spending 17 years. He recently tied the knot with Anita, who is 16 years younger to him. The event took a surprising turn after Mahto’s wife reportedly decided to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Munger district on a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ticket.

It’s the same constituency from where Rajiv Ranjan, the former national President of the Janata Dal (United), is expected to file his nomination.

Sixty-two-year-old Ashok Mahto was accused in several cases such as Nawada Jailbreak, the murder of P Raju Singh massacre in Sheikhpura’s Manipur and Nawada’s Apsardh and BDPO murder. He was released on December 10, 2023.

Anita (46) is the daughter of Hari Mehta, a resident of the Bansipur Hemjapur area under Suryagarha block of Lakhisarai. She works at a private firm in Delhi. Her father Hari Prasad Sahni was a PWD engineer.

Anita Samsabar belongs to the Kurmi community, while Ashok Mahto comes from the Dhanuk Kurmi community. As per the law, a convicted criminal cannot contest an election for six years following the end of his sentence.

Fearing his political career might be over, Ashok Mahto allegedly planned to marry and let her wife contest the election.

As per reports, it was believed that Ashok Mahto was interested in entering politics. He met RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav and expressed his wish for the same. According to a report on the Financial Express, Lalu Yadav agreed to his entry into politics. However, due to his past criminal record, he hurriedly decided to get married and file the nomination in the name of her wife Anita for the elections. The case of Ashok Mahto was also shown in the critically acclaimed web series Khakee: The Bihar Chapter.

In the 2019 elections, Lalan Singh from JD(U) emerged victorious from Munger against RJD’s Neelam Devi, wife of Anant Singh. Neelam Devi then pledged her allegiance to JDU on the day of the Bihar trust vote after Chief Minister Nitish Kuman switched sides to rejoin NDA to form a government in Bihar.