Caste equations have become the biggest need for electoral politics today. Every party is trying to woo the OBCs and Dalits, who were once the most neglected sections of society. Even national parties like the BJP and the Congress do not shy away from this now. The electoral strategy of political parties has started being made on the basis of caste. Nitish Kumar's party JDU, an expert player in electoral equations and vote bank politics, also does not want to be left behind in this matter. The Kurmi caste to which Nitish Kumar belongs has a total population of 2.87 percent in Bihar. In the era of caste politics, it is not possible for Nitish to remain the Chief Minister for 19 consecutive years with such few votes.
Nitish has influence in every caste
This has been possible because Nitish Kumar has prepared his political ground in every caste. First of all, he arranged for about 10 percent votes by creating the Luv-Kush (Kurmi-Kushwaha) equation. Then he increased his influence among Muslims by creating a separate category of backward Jamaat (Pasmanda) people. He made the half of the women population a permanent vote bank by giving them the benefits of various schemes and reservations. He divided the Dalits into two categories - Dalit and Mahadalit - and made different schemes for them, which increased their vote bank. Nitish did not just do this for the Dalits, he also added leaders from among them to his side. Nitish's attitude towards Bhumihars and Brahmins can be understood from the fact that JDU's working president is Sanjay Jha from Brahmin community, while Bhumihars have personalities like Lalan Singh, Vijay Chaudhary and Anant Singh. Among the Yadavs, there is Vijendra Yadav, while among the Rajputs, there is the family of former MP Anand Mohan. Nitish Kumar is also the richest in terms of Dalit leaders.
There is no Dalit leader in RJD-BJP
RJD, which challenges Nitish, lacks strong Dalit leaders, while BJP's bag is also empty in this matter. At present, only three Dalit leaders are seen in Bihar, who are running their own parties. Chirag Paswan, as a Dalit leader, is the president of one faction of LJP, while his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras is the president of the other faction. Jitan Ram Manjhi is running his own party HAM. Apart from this, Nitish Kumar's JDU is the only party which currently has two big Dalit leaders. Both are educated and have a background of political families. One of them is Ashok Chaudhary and the other is Shyam Rajak. Shyam Rajak was with RJD till recently. He left JDU and joined RJD and returned to JDU after being upset with Lalu Yadav's family.
JDU has two Dalit general secretaries
JDU is the only party in Bihar which has made two leaders from the Dalit community as national general secretaries. After Shyam Rajak, Nitish Kumar has expressed his love for Dalits by nominating Ashok Chaudhary as general secretary. It seems appropriate to call it Nitish Kumar's love for Dalits because the way a JDU lobby opened a front against Ashok Choudhary and started demanding disciplinary action along with ending his ministerial post, Nitish's decision to make him the general secretary has surprised everyone. The lobby working against Ashok Choudhary, who was in charge of Jamui, Samastipur and Jehanabad, blamed him for his failure. He was accused of insulting the Bhumihar caste. He was accused of posting a poem on social media centering on Nitish. Prima facie, there was strong evidence of action against him. Despite this, Nitish promoted him.
Understand Nitish's political thinking
Nitish Kumar released the caste survey report on 2 October 2023 last year. People did not understand the importance of caste survey then. Now everyone is realizing it. The caste survey report shows that the population of Scheduled Caste (Dalit) in Bihar is 19.65 percent. Nitish knows what are the benefits of this vote bank. Thinking about this, he had also made two categories of them. In the Bihar assembly elections held in the year 2020, Chirag Paswan's LJP got 5.69 percent votes, while it had fielded candidates on 145 seats. Jitan Ram Manjhi's party also got less than two percent votes. That is, 11-12 percent of the Dalit votes went to other parties. Even in bad condition, JDU had got 15.42 percent votes. Nitish Kumar's thinking may be that his hold on the remaining votes of Dalits should be strong. In front of other parties facing a shortage of Dalit leaders, JDU wants to turn the tables in the assembly elections to be held next year with the help of two Dalit leaders. Its preparation is to repeat 2010, when 115 members of JDU reached the assembly. This is the reason why Nitish made Shyam Rajak, who recently joined JDU, the national general secretary of the party and now Ashok Chaudhary has also been brought to the same status.
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