E-Paper
Grand Alliance fails to woo Dalit voters
In the 2025 Bihar elections, the Grand Alliance's Dalit outreach faltered, winning only 4 of 38 reserved seats, as NDA's governance earned Dalit trust.
New Delhi: The Grand Alliance or Mahagathbandhan’s Dalit outreach has failed in the 2025 Bihar election, with the grouping winning only four of the 38 seats reserved for the Scheduled Caste down from 17 in 2020.
The result underlines the GA’s inability to win over voters outside the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Muslim-Yadav vote bank and highlights that the Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar-led NDA has earned the trust of the Dalits through better law and order and a focus on welfare and development .
HT reported in the run-up to the poll that in several Dalit settlements, there was a fear of lawlessness (Jungle Raj) if the RJD-led GA returned to power. Dalits appreciated the political and financial empowerment plans of Nitish Kumar government, and they placed premium on peace and law and order. The NDA smartly played off these fears, repeatedly warning of the return of Jungle Raj if the GA came to power.
Ashok Bharti, Chairman of National Confederation of Dalit & Adivasi Organisations (NACDAOR) told HT, “There were some concerns among Dalits about the Yadav leadership. I cautioned the Mahagathbandhan leadership about this. And the NDA also had more visible Dalit faces as leaders.”
Pramod Kumar, a Muzzafarpur-based political commentator said, “Nitish Kumar has carefully nurtured the Dalits and even created a Maha-Dalit category to give additional benefits. The NDA has two strong Dalit faces: Union minister Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Majhi. The Mahagatbandhan didn’t have any prominent Dalit face except Congress’ state president Rajesh Ram.”
Bharti said that given that not everyone in a reserved constituency is a Dalit, a counter-consolidation cannot be ruled out.
But a senior Congress leader admitted to lapses.
“The Bihar election results point out that our Dalit outreach has been ineffective and that the Dalits still prefer the BJP-led NDA. We have to overhaul our strategy for social justice and become more proactive in terms of adopting Dalit causes.”
