Purnea/Darbhanga/Madhubani: In Purnea’s Maranga village, Shanti Devi, who belongs to the Mallah caste group, has heard that Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) chief and former Bihar minister Mukesh Sahani has been named as the deputy chief ministerial face of the opposition 'grand alliance'. 

“Yes I have heard he is from our community,” she said, when The Wire met her in Maranga’s Bind Tola.

Bind Tola, has a significant population of Mallahs, who are categorised among the extremely backward classes (EBC) in Bihar.  “Jeetega toh jaati ka naam badhega, shayyad upar aayega (if he wins, our caste group will get a better name and perhaps we will be able to come up),” said Shanti Devi who works as a cook in the village school.

Sahani, who was given 15 seats as a part of the opposition alliance seat sharing deal, has positioned himself as the “son of a Mallah” and projected himself as the sole leader of the boatman community who are a part of the state’s 36% EBC population.

Mallah, also called 'Machhuara' or 'fisherfolk' in some places, and 'Nishad' and 'Kevat' in others. According to the 2023 Bihar caste survey, the population of the Mallah caste group in Bihar is 3,410,093 (2.36085% of the population) and that of Kevat caste group is 937,861 (0.717%), while the Kevat caste population is 265,943 (0.2034%), in addition to the population of Bind caste group which is 1,285,358 (0.9833%).

The move to make Sahani the alliance’s deputy chief ministerial face is aimed at eroding chief minister Nitish Kumar’s traditional base over the EBCs, over which the incumbent chief minister has kept consistent policy focus over his 20-year-long term including through the creation of the category itself and their symbolic representation. 

The Mallah community is particularly influential in the Mithila and Tirhut regions, comprising Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur and Madhubani. 

At the turn of the century, in Madhubani’s Jhanjharpur assembly constituency, villagers in Usrar village, which has a significant Mallah population, refused to vote. 

“Not a single person from our village went to vote. When the officials saw that hours had passed and no one had come to vote they came to enquire. We told them that our village has no electricity, no development, and no politician comes to see us. So we will not vote for anyone,” said Sulekha Devi, a fisherwoman.

The village, in subsequent years, received electricity. Gas cylinders entered houses. Roads were slowly built. But all this only came after villagers had lived for decades in extreme poverty.

“We did not have sarees to wear. We would take our husband’s dhoti and cut it into two parts. While one was washed we would wear the other. Since those dhotis were plain white, we would dip them in colour and then wear them because we didn’t like white,” said Uria Devi.

Such is the importance of Mallahs – and the induction and subsequent elevation of Sahani – that leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi was seen diving into a pond in Begusarai to show his support to the local fishermen on the campaign trail.

Uria Devi and Sulekha Devi, both fisherwomen, working with the Sakhi NGO for over two decades, have had to fight for the very essence of their identity – their fishing rights. Along with other women in the village, supported by Sakhi, they overturned decades of caste hierarchy and patriarchy in the village and won a hard-earned battle for fishing rights in their own ponds. The Wire has earlier reported that aided by Sakhi, the women organised themselves and succeeded in getting the Bihar government to amend the Cooperative Societies Act that allowed women to bid for fishing rights, overturning the practice of dominant castes using Mallah fishermen to control ponds. The women now not only fish in their ponds, but also sell their produce in the village markets five days a week, and have also visited other states to teach fishing under a cooperative scheme.

While not many in the village had heard of Mukesh Sahani, they credited the development they have seen in the area to Modi.

“Ration of five kgs, gas cylinder, proper electricity supply, everything has been given by Modi. This is a flood-prone area, where every monsoon we are submerged in knee-deep water. In such an area also roads have been built by Modi,” said Uria Devi.

Also read: Women Voters Rally Behind Nitish Kumar But Raise Questions Over Unemployment

While the Mallahs have traditionally sided with the NDA, the move to bring in Sahani and name him as the opposition alliance’s chief ministerial face is rooted in the narrow victory margin of the 2020 elections. The winning margin between the NDA and the grand alliance or Mahagathbandhan was only about 12,000 votes with the NDA polling 37.26% of the votes against the 37.23% by the Mahagathbandhan. It is this narrow gap that has pushed the Mahagathbandhan to bring Sahani into the fold, elevate him to the deputy chief ministerial face of the alliance in the hopes that the move will erode Nitish’s EBC voter base and narrow the gap between the two alliances.

The alliance is also hoping that Sahani who was with the NDA in the 2020 elections, will repeat his performance in this election as well. Just ahead of the 2020 elections, Sahani had dramatically walked out of the RJD-Congress alliance at a joint press conference following a failure to reach a consensus on seat-sharing. He immediately went to the NDA, which gave the VIP 11 seats to contest. The VIP won four but Sahani himself lost. In 2022 Sahani was removed from the state cabinet just days after three of the VIP’s MLAs defected to the BJP. 

“Dal badlu hain wo (He keeps changing parties),” said Jagannath Mukhiya, a farmer in Madhubani’s Bathua village, who also belongs to the Mallah community.

“We would have liked to vote for him because he is from our community but he keeps changing sides,” said Jogeshwar Mukhiya, of the same village. “How can he be trusted if he keeps changing sides? Here Nitish and Modi are providing everything. If he had stayed on one side all Sahani votes would go to him. But he keeps moving. Stay on one side and work.”

Of the 15 seats that Sahani secured in the seat-sharing deal, his party’s tally has already dropped by two. While in East Champaran’s Sugauli, VIP candidate Shashi Bhushan Singh’s nomination was cancelled, in Darbhanga’s Gaura Baura Sahani’s brother Santosh has withdrawn his candidature and announced support to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)’s Afzal Ali Khan.

In Darbhanga town, however, VIP candidate Umesh Sahani has been fielded against revenue minister Sanjay Saraogi who is the BJP’s sitting MLA for the last two decades 

“While the BJP has been winning here, this time the Mahagathbandhan has fielded a Sahani and there is a sizable Sahani population here,” said Jitendra Sahani who runs a shop in Darbhanga.

“Those who were Sahani voters in the NDA may move to the Mahagathbandhan because of this.”

The Mallahs have traditionally been with the NDA, and have since 2014 been with the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“While the Bihar caste survey 2023 showed that Mukesh Sahani's Mallah community forms about 2.3% he claims to have influence over 9% including those of 22 sub castes. The Mallahs are important because it is the second biggest chunk among EBC after Teli. Traditionally they have been NDA's support base, and have been voting for them and are also ideologically aligned with them,” said Ashish Ranjan, co-founder of the poll data analysis firm DALES. 

“So after his alignment with the Mahagathbandhan if he can transfer even 50%, it will narrow the gap between the two alliances. His inclusion in the alliance is also important because no other block can shift to the Mahagathbandhan, whether it is Kurmi, Kushwaha, Brahmin or Bhumihars. So while Sahani is necessary to the alliance, he is not sufficient and the question remains how much he can help in swinging votes to the Mahagathbandhan.”

While the Bihar caste survey pegged the EBC population at 36%, Nitish has – since first becoming chief minister in 2005 – provided reservations in rural and urban local bodies. He also launched an entrepreneurship scheme for the EBCs, under which state assistance of upto Rs 10 lakh would be provided to set up small businesses. 

Back in Maranga’s Bind Tola, Shanti Devi, however, said that as a member of the EBC herself she has not received any support from the state. While she has worked as a cook at the village school since 2007, both she and her husband own no land themselves. They have worked on lands owned by dominant caste groups as farm labourers and sent their four children to school. Her granddaughter Radha is now studying in college but has not received any financial support announced by the government for girl and women students who complete school education. 

“Those who have received support from the government for being EBC may say that he has helped them. But I have not received anything. We have worked day and night for decades and even now I am working to pay for my granddaughter’s college education,” she said.

“Modi may have worked a lot for every caste group, and has our support, but see, many Mallahs may eventually decide to go with a man from their community.”

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