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Six members of the Bihar Sarkar Jungle Party, a band of criminals, were killed in gang warfare in Chief Minister Rabri Devi's home district of Gopalganj, on Saturday afternoon.
The clash took place in the riverine belt of the River Gandak.
According to reports, a rival gang led by Suresh Yadav swooped down on the house of Ramchandra Yadav, killing him and five associates while they were eating.
Reports said that panchayat elections may have led to the killings, as the father of Ram Chandra Yadav and wife of Amarjit Mullah, an associate of Suresh Yadav are contesting from Kathgharwan.
While Suresh is a dreaded criminal of the region and was involved in several killings in neighbouring Siwan district, Ram Chandra belonged to the Jungle Party, which has unleashed terror in the riverine and sugarcane belts of Gopalganj and west Champaran district. The terrain is suitable for such activities and after committing crimes they crossed over either to Uttar Pradesh in the west or Nepal in the north.
Ram Chandra once unsuccessfully contested assembly elections on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket, while Suresh is allegedly close to Samata Party supported don Satish Pandey. Ramchandra is an accused in 42 cases of murder, kidnapping and extortion.
With this killing, the number of those killed in panchayat election-related violence has crossed 50. The six-phase poll is to start from April 11. Saturday's incident in Gopalganj is the biggest single day killing related to elections.
Most of those killed are candidates for the post of mukhiya. Many have lost their lives even before they could file their nomination papers.
Nalanda, with 11 deaths and East Champaran with nine deaths, are other major violence-prone districts. In Bhojpur, four candidates for the post of mukhiya were killed in one day last week.
In the panchayat elections, held in the state 23 years back, 500 persons were killed. Unofficial sources put the toll at around 2,000.
With so many people being killed before the actual election process has started, it is feared that on polling day, many more people will lose their lives.
Besides caste polarisation, a factor which may cause more violence is the presence of about 300 candidates belonging to extremist organisations like the MCC, Peoples War and Ranvir Sena in the fray.
Since a mukhiya enjoys more executive and financial powers, there is much at stake. The six-phase poll for 8,062 panchayats, spread over 1,27,068 booths, is to begin from April 11.
The state government has decided to have an insurance cover of Rs 10 lakh to each employee engaged in the panchayat election work. Besides, the insurance cover of policeman is of Rs 2.50 lakh. So far, 1,782 anti-social elements have been rounded up, most of them from the bordering districts of East and West Champaran. The international border with Nepal is being sealed and a strict vigil is being kept on the state's border with Uttar Pradesh.
There is an acute shortage of police forces to deploy for the elections following the Centre's refusal to send 35 companies of para-military forces, as sought by the state government.
The home department of the state government has promised the state election commission 1.80 lakh police personnel. The police headquarters is making efforts to provide arms to 40,000 Home Guards, who are likely to be deployed on election duty.
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