Dalit politics began gaining momentum in Bihar ahead of the assembly elections. Eleven years after he left the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led RJD to join JD(U), Shyam Rajak, who was a minister in the Nitish Kumar government, returned to his parent party. Rajak joined RJD in the presence of Bihar's leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav.
While, Rajak, a dalit leader, returning to RJD is beneficial for Yadav's party, the grand alliance is facing turbulence as former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi is threatening to switch sides, once again.
Another party which represents dalit interests, Chirag Paswan-led LJP, is too flexing its muscles as its leader has said it was ready to contest all seats in the state alone if it did not get a good deal from the ruling JD(U)-BJP alliance.
Rajak, who served as industries minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet until he was removed from the post and sacked from the party as news of his switching sides was known, had earlier left RJD in 2009 to join JD(U).
“It is an emotional homecoming for me. We had come to fight for social justice. This fight was suffering under present government. The dalits, and even the poor among the upper castes, are facing difficulties. So, I returned to continue the fight under the RJD,” Rajak said.
Dalits make up for 15 per cent of the population in the state, represented by different leaders and parties. There are 38 reserved seats in the 243-seat assembly. Unlike, Uttar Pradesh where dalit politics thrived because of Kanshi Ram and Mayawati-led movements, Bihar never had dalit political agitation. Among dalits too, there are extremely marginalised groups called mahadalits.
Every alliance needs to have all caste groups represented in terms of seats division to get the social engineering formula right.
Manjhi, another prominent dalit leaer in the state, was part of the JD(U) before he floated his own party—Hindustani Awam Morcha—in 2015. The JD(U) and RJD had come together then. Recently, Manjhi has expressed unhappiness over accepting Tejashwi Yadav's chief ministerial candidature and instead wanted a coordination committee for elections. He has set August 20 as the new deadline for taking a decision on walking out of the alliance. It needs to be seen if he decides to join the NDA.
Meanwhile, Chirag Paswan has been upping ante. He has questioned the state government on several issues, and even taken a different view from the NDA allies over holding elections and the mode of campaign. He said his party was capable of going solo on all the 243 seats. His assertions are seen as getting more seats from the ruling the NDA grouping.
As elections near, the caste politics in the state is set to get intense.
