Gopal Mandal

Gopal Mandal belongs to Bhagalpur district of Bihar and he is a member of Extremely Backward Gangota caste.[4][5]

Mandal becomes part of many controversies time and again and several such incidents has been reported by the state media, in which he had been blamed by his political opponents for promoting indecent behaviour. One of the earliest controversy associated with him took place in 2016, when he was reported dancing with bar dancers at a marriage ceremony in Bhojpur district of Bihar. Initially he alleged the video to be doctored, but later he accepted that he was featuring in the video. He also explained that he used to be an artist by birth and he just danced to entertain the people, and there was nothing bad in the video. This incident followed another controversy in which he was accused by a resident of Naugachhia village named Fatoo Pandit of beating him, as latter had refused to obey his orders.[6]

In 2021, a video of Mandal walking in one of the air conditioned coach of the Tejas Rajdhani express went viral. In this video he was shown walking in undergarments in the train, while travelling from Delhi to Patna. He later explained that he had a stomach ache and that's why he was refreshing himself.[7] In the same year, Member of Bihar Legislative Assembly from Bihpur Assembly constituency, Engineer Shailendra filed a complaint infront of Bihar Police against Mandal. He accused Mandal of making death threats against him. Mandal later organised a press conference to explain his part.[8] Earlier, in the year 2021, Prabhat Khabar reported an incident involving the two men, pertaining to a viral audio, in which Mandal was talking to Shailendra. He seemed angry as he was not invited in a ceremony and was abusing Bhumihar caste and senior leaders of BJP including Shailendra. Latter was silently listening to Mandal.[9]

In 2023, an another controversy erupted over illegal construction on a disputed land of a person called Lal Bahadur Shastri. Earlier, Gopal Mandal's son Ashish Mandal had skirmishes with the family members of Shastri over the issue of land grabbing. In these skirmishes, firing took place from Asish's side. Later, on a complaint made by Shastri to Barari police, it was found that illegal construction was being done on the disputed land at the behest of Mandal.[10]

• Beema Bharti