The left-wing parties and their alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in the next elections for the Bihar assembly are touted as formidable, with the former still having significant support in pockets. However, while RJD’s leadership has been enthusiastic about its alliance with the Communist Party of India (ML-Liberation), which is currently the strongest among the left-wing parties in the state, it has been relatively calm about its pre-election coalition with the many – weakened Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)].
A section of observers believes that the differences between RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and CPI’s Kanhaiya Kumar, also former president of the JNU student union who opposed RJD candidate Tanveer Hassan in Begusarai in the 2019 parliamentary elections, could be a major reason for RJD’s hesitant response to Alianza. However, with the alliance arriving, Kumar will be one of the star activists of the Mahagathbandhan, but without any influence on the distribution of seats and candidates, even within his own party.
However, RJD was more interested in having an alliance with leftist parties than with single-caste parties such as Upendra Khushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) and Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), both abandoned by the RJD as choice. the heat reached. The RJD finally yielded 29 seats to the left: 19 to the CPI (ML), six to the CPI and four to the CPI (M). Some of these were seats in which RJD had won in the 2015 elections, while the CPI (ML) had won three and two other left-wing parties were unable to open their account in the 2015 assembly elections.
Considered “disproportionate concessions to the left, particularly to the CPI (ML)” by many in the RJD, this distribution of seats triggered a kind of rebellion in the ranks of the party in some of these seats. Considered “cheeky” and “arrogant” by many political observers, why did RJD have such a big change of mind? The reasons lie not only in the legacy of the left and its resurgence, but also in the complex socio-political dynamics of the state.
Importance of the left to Mahagathbandhan
The BJP in Bihar is mainly supported by the upper caste and Baniya voters who comprise around a fifth of the state’s population, while the RJD is mainly limited to Muslim and Yadav voters, who comprise around a third of the population.
Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) becomes crucial in this context as he has majority support from non-Yadav OBCs such as Kurmi and Koeri, EBC and Mahadalits. A transfer from this vote base to one of the two above disproportionately increases your chances of winning in the first-after-post system. To a lesser extent, the late Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP also plays a similar role, having majority support from the Paswans (now under the Mahadalit category) who comprise about 5% of the state’s population.
Successive elections have shown that Nitish and Paswan’s voting bases are largely transferable to their alliance partners. It is this particular reason why Nitish’s support (and LJP’s to a lesser extent) is very important to its partners. In fact, since the October 2005 assembly elections, the results have favored the alliance that had Nitish Kumar as an ally.
Tejashwi Yadav from RJD and Kanhaiya Kumar from CPI. Photo: PTI
This time JD (U) would add votes to the BJP, the RJD had to find ways to make inroads into the non-Muslim / Yadav sections to increase their chance of winning. Congress is not of much use as its support among Dalits and upper castes has significantly eroded. Although limited to a few pockets, the only other political force in Bihar that has support among the EBC and Mahadalits is the left. This explains RJD’s newfound love for left-wing parties: playing the role that JD (U) will play for the BJP, albeit in a very small number of seats.
For example, in Bind (Nishad) Tola of Rajauli village in the Bachchwara assembly constituency of Begusarai, Nishad voters openly accepted that they will vote for the CPI than the highly touted VIP of Mukesh Sahni. “Mukesh Sahni never came here, we never met him or the people in his party, but Awadhesh Babu (CPI candidate and former MLA) helps us through difficult times,” says Ram Ratan, a middle-aged Nishad interviewee.
The same is true of respondents from Halwai (another CBE community) in most places in the Aara district, especially in the Agiaon (SC) -Tarari region. Indeed, such is the image among the small merchants of the Tarari CPI (ML) MLA Sudama Prasad, who also hails from the same community, that the majority of respondents in the Tarari market expressed their support for his party. This was a bit strange, as markets are generally considered BJP strengths.
“Most of the small shop owners are generally supporters of the BJP,” agrees Dinesh Sao, 43, who runs a sweet shop in the Tarari market, “but here Sudama ji has always supported us, agitated by our problems. and now we cannot abandon it. ”Along similar lines, it was surprising to see Kushwaha voters, traditionally Nitish supporters, expressing their support for the CPI (ML) in Siwan’s Ziradeyi and the CPI (M) at Bibhutipur headquarters in Samastipur. Both leftist parties have produced strong and entrenched leaders such as Amarjeet Kushwaha and Ramdeo Verma from the community.
But when it comes to Mahadalit voters, the strength of CPI (ML) is at its foci of influence. “The awakening of the Dalits in central and western Bihar did not come through the Ambedkarite stream, but through Naxalbari in the 1970s, when armed struggle became the means to oppose feudal oppression and demand justice. Since then, ML’s presence among Dalits, especially Chamars and Musahars, has never ceased in the Bhojpuri-speaking region covering Ara and Siwan districts, ”says Niraj Kumar, national secretary general of ML’s youth body, RYA. . It is this voting base that has solidly supported ML even in the most difficult times in these regions and continues to do so.
A demographic shift
In addition to caste arithmetic, what weakened the left parties in Bihar over the years was demographic change: old stalwarts grew old and youth leaders preferred traditional parties. The average age of a left-wing party activist continued to increase and, therefore, their presence among voters from these social sectors decreased, along with the militant flavor of their protests. “This changed dramatically in the last 5 to 10 years,” says Vishwajeet, a member of the state committee for CPI Bihar. “After the arrival of Kanhaiya, the party became attractive to young people again. Currently two of our candidates, Ramnarayan Yadav from Jhanjharpur and Suryakant Paswan from Bakhri headquarters, are former leaders of CPI youth organizations. “
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the most voted candidates for the CPI and CPI (ML), Kanhaiya Kumar and Raju Yadav, were leaders of their party’s student organizations. Candidates such as Manoj Manjil from Agiaon, Ajit Kushwaha from Dumraon and Amarjeet Kushwaha from Buxar are all leaders of AISA and RYA, student and youth corps of ML, while Sandeep Saurav of Paliganj is a former general secretary of the JNU student union. What explains this enormous transformation?
“India witnessed a kind of increase in student youth in recent years on various issues, from corruption to unemployment, education, shrinking democratic space, etc.”, explains Ravi Rai, a member of the central committee of the CPI (ML) and former national secretary general of AISA. . “These movements were the first to resist the government’s anti-popular initiatives, and the issues they raised had an organic link to society at large, helping them push the boundaries of campus, making them attractive across India. As the problems they raised remain unsolved, the leaders of these movements naturally adopted broader roles and this explains why so many student-youth occupy leadership positions ”, he summarizes.
Although it is pertinent to note that the CPI may not share the enthusiasm as rebellions within the party are reported in which 14 candidates from the Indian Student Federation (AISF), the party’s student wing, have submitted nominations. on your own. These candidates are rumored to be able to count on Kanhaiya’s tacit support despite his apparent denial. The development also shows the clash of two youth icons, Kanhaiya and Tejaswi, in the anti-BJP space.
A new kind of left
A direct result of having broad support, in limited areas, at the base of the social pyramid and the resurgence of youth in it, led to an increase in the visibility of party activities: the left became visible and assertive. For example, Manoj Manjil, candidate for Agiaon (SC) of the CPI (ML), is a former student leader who rose to prominence five years ago when, in the run-up to the 2015 elections, his agitation over electricity supply in the region helped the CPI (ML) mobilize ordinary people on civic issues.
It helped him get around 30,000 votes in the 2015 elections. Drawing lessons, he continued that mixed model of assertive agitation using roadblocks around civic issues such as education, compensation or democratic rights. A unique experiment in this regard was Sadak school par where party volunteers would conduct a survey of the public schools in a region. Additionally, the work of left-wing leaders like Mairva MLA Satyadev Ram in providing relief to migrants who entered Bihar through Siwan during the shutdown also helped them expand the reach and goodwill of the left.
Representative image. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
“This was a new kind of left-wing politics that used civic issues and assertive protests to ensure people’s participation and fix the responsibility of the administration to ensure timely relief,” Rai says. “And the left has to continue to reinvent itself in this way to remain relevant not only in Bihar, but also abroad.”
However, this relevance of the left in Bihar must be seen in RJD’s differential approach, in which the CPI (ML) appears to be treated generously, while the rebellion within the youth wing of the CPI reveals the alleged marginalization of Kanhaiya and her against. it moves, despite the apparent denials.
Rajan Pandey is Professor of Political Science at Royal Global University, Guwahati. Sajjan Kumar is a political analyst. They are associated with Peoples Pulse.
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