Patna, Nov 2 (IANS): A day ahead of the bypolls to Gopalganj and Mokama Assembly seats in Bihar, former MP and Bahubali leader Anand Mohan will be out of jail on Wednesday on a 15-day parole.

Anand Mohan is serving life imprisonment in the lynching of G. Krishnayya, District Magistrate of Gopalganj in 1994 in Muzaffarpur. Krishnayya was killed when his car was attacked during the funeral procession of underworld don Chotan Shukla. Anand Mohan was part of the procession, and Muzaffarpur police had chargesheeted him for provoking the supporters to commit the crime.

The MP-MLA court of Muzaffarpur granted Mohan parole for 15 days. Anand Mohan's wife Lovely Anand and son Chetan Anand are in the RJD. Chetan Anand is also an MLA of the party. Anand Mohan belongs to the Rajput community and has a sizable vote bank in North Bihar's Saharsa, Gopalganj, Madhepura and other districts.

Sources said that the RJD was seeking his release before the bypoll of Gopalganj and Mokama. The Gopalganj seat in particular is not easy for the RJD candidate to win. There is a contest between the RJD and BJP in Gopalganj, but the Sadhu Yadav factor may hurt the RJD. The BJP has its own core voters of upper castes and traders. The RJD has the voters among the Muslims, Yadavs and Dalits and Mahadalit communities.

In Gopalganj, Sadhu Yadva's wife, Indira Yadav, is contesting against RJD candidate Mohan Prasad Gupta and BJP candidate Kusum Devi. After the release of Anand Mohan, the Rajput voters may shift towards the RJD as its leaders are hoping so. This is said to be one of the ways to counter the BJP candidates and Tejashwi Yadav has been invoking the name of his father Lalu Prasad repeatedly in Gopalganj to counter his uncle, Sadhu Yadav.

The voting for Gopalganj and Mokama will be held on Thursday (November 3) and the results will come out on November 6.