The induction of two Extremely Backward Castes MPs from Bihar — one Nai (belonging to the barber community) and another Nishad (belonging to the boatmen community) — into the new Narendra Modi cabinet against not a single name last time, came as no surprise, as in the post-caste survey era the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) cannot afford to ignore them. What is surprising is that while they became ministers of state, the two Dalit faces, young Chirag Paswan and first-timer Jitan Ram Manjhi, got cabinet berths.
If the NDA wants to return to power in the state after the 2025 assembly election, it will have to give more space to these 113 castes which fall in the EBCs list.
Share in power
The EBCs got some share in power at the grassroots level when the Nitish Kumar government in 2006 gave 20% reservation to them in the urban and rural local bodies election. But since then, not much has been done to improve their representation in the state assembly or Lok Sabha. The number of EBCs who got tickets from Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have certainly increased in the assembly and the recently held parliamentary elections. But that was not the case with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which gave tickets to only two from the EBCs’ bloc this time.
In contrast, it gave 10 tickets to upper castes who form only 10.5% of the state population. The saffron party contested 17 seats in the state.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
According to the caste survey released last October, EBCs form 36.01% of Bihar’s population in comparison to 27.1% of the Other Backward Castes. The 22 Scheduled Castes form 19.65% of the state’s population.
JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP Ramnath Thakur was in the news in recent months as his father and former chief minister Karpoori Thakur got Bharat Ratna early this year. In fact, the announcement in this regard made by Prime Minister Modi on January 23 sparked off a political realignment and paved the way for the return of Nitish Kumar to the NDA fold. On January 28, Kumar dumped the RJD and the Congress and once again headed the NDA government in Bihar.
What came as a surprise was the induction of Raj Bhushan Chaudhary who defeated Congress party’s Ajay Nishad by 2.35 lakh votes in Muzaffarpur. He was one of the two EBC candidates who had contested the election as a BJP nominee this time. Ironically, Chaudhary — who too is a Nishad — contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, as Vikassheel Insaf Party’s candidate and was defeated by Ajay Nishad by a huge margin. The only difference was that Ajay was then the BJP candidate, who has now crossed over to the Congress as he was denied a ticket by the saffron party.
EBCs bargaining position
The problem with the 113 EBCs is that they are numerically very small groups and thus don’t have as much bargaining power as the Yadavs, Kushwahas, Kurmis and Banias among Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and Rajputs, Brahmins and Bhumihars among the upper castes. Even Dussadhs (Paswans) form 5.31% while Musahars (Manjhi’s caste) are 3.1%.
Incidentally, Nishads or Sahnis form 2.6% of Bihar’s population while Nais make up 1.59%, Thus, they are numerically stronger EBC groups.
Nishads, and other riverine castes, are spread in large numbers in north Bihar having hundreds of snow-fed Himalayan rivers. In Muzaffarpur and adjoining districts, they make up a sizeable population. Perhaps, this was the reason why first-timer Chaudhary was preferred over another EBC three-time MP of the BJP from Araria, Pradeep Kumar Singh. Chaudhary’s caste may have helped him get this berth.
Masterstroke
Keeping this in mind, the RJD had left three out of its 26 seats for the Vikassheel Insaf Party of Mukesh Sahni — ‘Son of Mallah’ fame — in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Not only that it has given a ticket to Bima Bharti from Purnea as she also comes from another riverine Extremely Backward Caste of east Bihar. Though she lost to Independent candidate Pappu Yadav, in fact, pushed to third position, political commentators are of the view that fielding her was a master stroke by RJD as the assembly election is due next year. Bharti’s importance can be gauged from the fact that she was actually a JD(U) MLA, who resigned after Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA fold on January 28.
Also read: Bihar Caste Survey: The Who’s Who in the Data | Kevat
Of the four others who were made ministers two are Bhumihars — Giriraj Singh of the BJP and Lallan Singh of the JD(U) — and one Brahmin S.C. Dubey, and Nityanand Rai, a Yadav. The latter two are from the BJP and have been made ministers of state. In fact, Dubey is a Rajya Sabha member.
With caste census becoming one of the main battle-cry of the Congress and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav of the RJD walking away with the credit for getting the Bihar caste survey conducted as the deputy chief minister in the Nitish Kumar government, the BJP, in particular, was bound to take care of the EBCs.
Soroor Ahmed is a Patna-based freelance journalist.
Read all of The Wire’s reporting on and analysis of the 2024 election results here.
