The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (United), the two main components of the NDA, are waging a kind of proxy war with each other for Dalit votes and trying to maneuver each other in the game of overcoming. . to become the largest party after assembly polls with numbers close to the magic number of 122 in Bihar’s assembly of 243 members.
The war is being fought by the BJP through the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) on the one hand and by the JD (U) through the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) on the other hand. While the LJP has been a long-time ally of the NDA, HAM chief and former Bihar minister Jitan Ram Manjhi recently announced that he would join the JD (U) and pledged his unwavering loyalty to Nitish Kumar.
Manjhi’s decision to join forces with Kumar is seen as a tactical ploy to counter Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and his son Chirag, who of late has been hurling scathing criticism of Bihar’s Chief Minister over myriad issues, including the alleged mismanagement of the coronavirus. crisis and floods.
The LJP has announced that it will run candidates against the JD (U) candidates while praising the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Recently, it came out with full-page advertisements in the print media apparently aimed at Kumar. “They are fighting to rule us while we fight for the pride of Bihar,” read the slogan of the ad.
The HAM chief reacted sharply to Chirag Paswan’s outbursts, saying his party was ready to challenge the LJP if it chose to run candidates against the JD (U). “I will strengthen the hands of Kumar, who has been targeted by the LJP,” Manjhi said.
The ruling coalition already has a Dalit leader in Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and thus accommodating Manjhi, also a leader representing the underprivileged Musahar caste, would not be an easy task. Manjhi has already made it clear that he will not merge his party with any other political party. He has demanded double-digit assembly seats in the upcoming elections.
Manjhi had left the JD (U) in 2015 after being forced to resign as Prime Minister to make way for Nitish Kumar’s return. He later formed the HAM and contested 21 seats during the 2015 Bihar assembly polls as a member of the NDA. With Kumar’s return to the NDA fold in July 2017, he withdrew to join the opposition Grand Alliance.
Before the 2010 assembly elections, Nitish Kumar had divided the scheduled castes by bracketing 21 castes as Mahadalits leaving out the Dusadhs (Paswans). He had announced certain measures for the well-being of Mahadalits and provide them with a three-decimal (1,306.8 square feet) parcel for housing.
The move was aimed at obtaining the votes of the majority of the programmed caste population and isolating Paswan in Bihar politics. The tactic had paid huge dividends to the NDA led by JD (U), which won 206 of the 243 assembly seats in the 2010 state assembly elections. The Paswans were also eventually included in the Mahadalit group by Manjhi during his mandate as chief minister.
In a tactical move to woo the Programmed Breeds, Kumar has gone one step further this time by ordering rules to be laid down to give a job to the relatives of a SC or ST person who dies in any adverse incident. He also ordered the elimination of pending cases under the Registered Caste and Tribes (Atrocity Prevention) Act by September 20.
The move has provoked a strong reaction from opposition parties, as it is pregnant with the threat of internal enmities between families of the programmed castes that lead to the murder of older members for getting government jobs on compassionate grounds.
RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav accused Kumar of playing the Dalit card before the assembly elections, claiming it would encourage the killings of SC and ST people in the state. He also questioned why people from the general and backward communities have been left out.
In fact, the main purpose behind this battle for Dalit votes is the goal of becoming the largest party or group after the elections.
For Kumar, this election would be his last chance to become prime minister until 2025, but he faces an uphill task given anti-incumbent factors over the alleged delay in handling the onslaught of hundreds of thousands of migrants in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
On the other hand, a section of BJP leaders such as Union ministers RK Singh, Giriraj Singh, Nityanand Rai and former Union minister Sanjay Paswan believe that the political situation was conducive for the party to win the next elections in Bihar. only as Prime Minister Narendra Modi. it enjoys massive support among the masses.
“BJP can form a government on its own in Bihar. There should be no question about it. The support base of our party and our leader Narendra Modi is strong in Bihar. But we respect our alliance with the JD (U) formed in 1996. We will not break the alliance, ”said union minister RK Singh.
Kumar had severed his 17-year ties with the BJP in 2013 after Modi was nominated as a candidate for prime minister. Kumar fought alone in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and was only able to win two seats with a vote share of nearly 16 percent.
He had joined the RJD led by Lalu Prasad Yadav and won the 2015 assembly elections to become prime minister. But he broke the alliance and joined the NDA again in 2017. The JD (U) and the BJP contested the Lok Sabha polls together with the LJP and won 39 out of 40 seats.
Their relationship, however, worsened after the BJP offered JD (U) just one cabinet seat. The leader of JD (U) rejected the offer, creating a rift between the allies. However, the BJP in an attempt to appease its ally, declared that it would contest the Bihar polls under the leadership of Nitish Kumar.
Politics in Bihar has reached a stage where leadership has become the target of contempt and cynicism in the game of gaining a competitive advantage over rivals. The ongoing battle may create fissures among the workers of the three NDA allies at the grassroots level and damage the electoral prospects of others in the elections.
With this in mind, the top leaders of both the BJP and JD (U) are also making efforts to salvage the situation and remain united with the voters. It is the fear of losing to rivals that can hold the NDA together in the long run.
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