There is another important aspect to this: caste.
Sangh’s infiltration of the LJP can also be seen as an attempt to further weaken Bihar’s social justice-based parties.
In this election, the LJP has become an important vehicle for promoting upper caste representation. More than 40 percent of the LJP candidates come from the upper castes, second only to the BJP and roughly equal to Congress. In comparison, RJD and JD (U) are strongly dominated by OBC.
Bihar has not had an Upper Caste Prime Minister for more than three decades. First Lalu Yadav and then Nitish Kumar represented the OBC’s dominance over state politics. For all these years, the upper castes backed Nitish Kumar against Lalu Prasad, who was openly viewed against their interests. The representation of the upper castes in key positions increased substantially with Nitish Kumar.
However, the expectations of the upper castes in Bihar have also increased, especially after Uttar Pradesh obtained a CM Thakur after 15 years in 2017 and the leaders of the upper castes of Bihar such as Ravi Shankar Prasad, Radha Mohan Singh, Giriraj Singh and RK Singh became ministers to the prime minister. Modi.
Now, Chirag Paswan offers an even better deal than Kumar when it comes to upper caste representation. It promises a BJP-led government in the state and one that would presumably be dominated by the upper castes.
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