PATNA/MUZAFFARPUR: Sipping tea at a roadside stall in Nathnagar, Muzaffarpur, Ram Charan Yadav was of the view that under chief minister Nitish Kumar, Bihar has seen unprecedented development. He claimed that not only him but people of all castes, Yadavs included, would vote for Nitish this time.“At 65, I have seen days when power used to come only for a few minutes. Now it is regular. There were no roads or water but now there is water supply at home. What else do we need, Nitish Kumar is doing his best to change the face of the state and we must support him,” Yadav said.
With the third and last phase of the polling over on Saturday, the die has been cast on the Bihar elections. All the rivals can now do the math on the likely outcome at leisure. But is caste no longer a factor in the elections, as the elderly Yadav claimed? Traditionally, caste has always played a dominant role in the elections. Not surprisingly, it is said that the people of Bihar don’t cast their vote, they vote their caste.
But the striking feature of this campaign was the emergence of issues, among them development, unemployment, corruption and jungle raj. It is not that caste been cast aside totally. But there is a widespread feeling that voting this time will not take place solely on caste considerations.“It cannot be denied that caste is not an issue in Bihar, but at the same time the development brought by Nitish Kumar is also an issue in these polls,” said Raman Jha, a businessman at Kamtaul village of Muzaffarpur.
Jha is joined by Manoj Kumar, 35, of Hajipur and Shashank Kumar Yadav, 30, of Gaya. While Kumar is a Kurmi, Nitish’s caste, Shashank is a Yadav. Both claimed to have not voted along caste lines but on issues such as development and employment.
Given this mood, many political parties rose above caste and community even during the distribution of election tickets. The Rashtriya Janata Dal, a champion of caste and mandal politics, effected the biggest change, giving wider representation to candidates of other castes.Of the 144 candidates it has fielded this time, only 58, or 40%, are Yadavs. In 2015, the party had contested 101 seats and gave tickets to 65 Yadavs, or 64%. As for Muslim candidates, the RJD has fielded 17 this time, down from 21 in the last
elections.
Caste taking back seat in ticket distribution,poll manifestes a good sign, say experts
Muslims and Yadavs have always taken the lion’s share of the RJD’s tickets as they constitute the party’s main vote bank. The change this time is largely because of its young leader, Tejashwi Yadav, who has made Nitish his singular target of attack. The change is also visible in the JD(U), which brought in the concept of mahadalits, or extremely backward classes. While it has fielded 27 EBCs, the party has also given tickets to 21 upper castes.
The JD-U has only six Kurmi, Nitish’s caste, candidates this time, down from 20 in 2015. The BJP has given rickets to fewer upper castes — it was 59 in 2015 but 51 this time. “We have tried our best this time to ensure the participation of all castes among the candidates. But the entire electioneering was focused on development and employment,” said RJD leader Chitranjan Gagan. He claimed that the unemployment issue got a massive response from youngsters aged between 18 and 40. “Thanks to the lockdown, the factor this time has been livelihood other than caste. The parties have fielded candidates from all castes; that’s a good sign,” said Patna based educationist Meera Singh.
“No doubt this is a good sign for a caste-ridden state like Bihar. But given the social equation, the caste factor cannot be overlooked in the elections for the next decade till the literacy rate reaches above 95% from 63.82% now,” said Ravi Sinha, principal of R N College in Hajipur near Patna. Former journalist and political analyst Law Kumar Mishra said political parties used to highlight only the negative aspects of their opponents earlier, but this time they’ve incorporated positive issues such as development. “If we talk about poll manifestos, they are talking primarily about development,” he said.