Social justice to be focus of BJP’s Bihar polls campaign

Both the ruling coalition and the Opposition are engaged in a fierce battle to claim credit for the decision to include caste enumeration in the decadal census

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is placing social justice at the core of its election campaign in Bihar, with a focus on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Nitish Kumar as champions of the poor and socially marginalised, people familiar with the strategy said.

The NDA asserts that it was the Nitish Kumar-led government, backed by the BJP, that conducted the caste enumeration in Bihar in 2022. (HT photo)

The BJP is keen to go to the polls, expected in October-November, as part of a strong coalition to tap into the “collective vote bank” of allies in the state, where it is in power with chief minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) or JD(U). Other NDA constituents are Union minister Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awami Morcha (Secular), and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP). The NDA constituents will jointly contest elections that are likely to be held later this year.

In the 2020 assembly elections, the NDA won 125 seats in the 243-member assembly and formed the government with Kumar as the CM. The BJP won 74 of the 110 seats it contested in alliance with the JD(U), which could only manage 43 of the 115 seats it contested. The Opposition Mahagathbandhan, comprising the RJD, Congress and Left parties, won 110 seats.

According to BJP and JD(U) functionaries, unlike the other states where the campaign is pivoted on the development agenda and Hindutva, the NDA’s election pitch in Bihar will be hoisted on the planks of development and social justice, given the centrality of caste in the state’s electoral politics.

Both the ruling coalition and the Opposition are engaged in a fierce battle to claim credit for the decision to include caste enumeration in the decadal census. The NDA asserts that it was the Nitish Kumar-led government, backed by the BJP, that conducted the caste enumeration in Bihar in 2022.

The alliance has also intensified its attack on the RJD, accusing party founder and former chief minister Lalu Prasad of disrespecting Dr BR Ambedkar after a photograph taken on Prasad’s birthday on June 14 showed Ambedkar’s portrait placed near his feet. The Bihar SC Commission has since issued a notice to Lalu Yadav, asking why a case should not be filed against him under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

“Lalu Prasad’s insult to Ambedkar has taken the shape of a political movement. On the one hand there are Nitish Kumar, the face of the socialist movement in India, and PM Modi who gave a new shape to social engineering and on the other are RJD, which claims to stand for social justice, but in reality relies on the Yadav-Muslim equation and the Congress, which after the Mandal politics has steadily weakened in Bihar and is using the RJD as a crutch to survive,” a senior BJP functionary aware of the matter said, requesting anonymity.

Addressing a rally in Siwan on June 20, Modi referred to the photo, saying, “The whole country saw what the RJD did to Babasaheb’s photo recently... I know that these people will never apologise because they have no respect for the Dalits and the backwards.”

The BJP functionary quoted above said, “In the last three decades of electoral history, the narrative of social justice has been the backbone of Lalu Yadav’s politics. This time, on his birthday, the controversy surrounding Ambedkar has pushed him on the backfoot...The BJP is planning a mass movement across the state, mobilising SC, ST, and other social groups to expose the alleged double standards of Lalu Yadav.”

According to people aware of the matter, championing the issue of caste and social justice is also a move by the BJP to confront the allegations of being anti-reservation. In 2015, the party’s debacle in the state polls was largely attributed to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s statement, calling for a review of reservations. RSS is the ideological fount of the BJP.

RJD leader and former deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav has been demanding 85% reservation for all deprived classes in Bihar and to include it in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution so that the increased quotas cannot be challenged in court. But NDA leaders are confident that Yadav’s statements notwithstanding, the “hold” that Kumar and Modi have over a “larger constituency of upper caste, OBC, EBC and ati-pichda (most backward)” will put the alliance in the lead.

Deputy chief minister of Bihar and BJP leader Samrat Chaudhary said the RJD has a hypocritical stand on reservations. “ Lalu was in power from 1990 to 2005, he made no efforts to give reservation to any caste or community. In 2001 when elections for Zilla Parishad were held, even Dalits were not given any kind of reservation,” he said.

Referring to the NDA as a “formidable alliance”, JD(U) leader and former lawmaker KC Tyagi, too, said, “This is not the Vajpayee-Advani era anymore where social justice issues were not central. Nor is the BJP a homogenous party anymore. By giving socialist leaders, Karpoori Thakur, George Fernandes, Madhu Limaye and JP Narayan the recognition they deserve, the BJP has ensured that social justice will be the front and centre of its politics.”

Tyagi also accused the previous Congress government of not honouring the “stalwarts”, highlighting how the BJP-led central government honoured socialist icon and former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh and former Bihar Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur with Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award, last year.

“Nitish Kumar is the face of the socialist movement and created space for the Maha Dalits in the state, but the BJP too has owned the legacy of the socialist leaders. Today we have Karpoori Jayanti being celebrated in his honour while the RJD used to demean him by referring to him as Kapti (deceitful)...” Tyagi said.

Meanwhile, RJD lawmaker Manoj Jha said, “Whenever the opposition, whether it was Yadav or Gandhi asked for caste-based census, from the PM down to the CM, look at the language they employed in ridiculing the cornerstone of social justice. Go back to the (book) Bunch of Thoughts by MS Golwalkar, which has not been disowned by the RSS and BJP, and what it says about reservation. It talks about our Constitution and about Ambedkar and subaltern castes and communities in disparaging terms… Today’s reality is that they (BJP) may wear social justice on their sleeves, but It is not in their heart.”