Bihar: Upper Caste Dominance Continues in Electoral Politics

Patna: In backward Bihar, which is widely seen as a hub of “Mandal” politics since the 1990s, the dominance of the powerful upper castes continues in electoral politics, the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the state indicate.

The elections results expose the hollowness of the slogans raised by top leaders of the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to ensure proportionate political representation after the Bihar caste survey report was made public last year.

In the first elections held in April-May-June (2024) after the much-hyped Bihar caste survey report was
released last October(2023), as many as 12 MPs belonging to upper castes (Hindu) were elected, which
is 30% of total 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state. This is despite the fact that their population (upper castes - Bhumihar, Rajput, Brahmin and Kayasth) is merely 10.72% of total population of the state.

Ahead of caste survey report, 13 MPs belonging to upper castes were elected in the 2019 Lok Sabha
elections in Bihar.

“Upper castes are dominating in electoral politics in the state due to social-political equations on the
ground in their favour. This plays a major role in winning elections. Upper castes will continue to enjoy a
major chunk of political pie until the ongoing trend of dominant caste politics ends in Bihar”, political analyst Satyanarayan Madan told NewsClick.

Madan noted that the upper castes were not only dominating castes, they were also a political well-organised community unlike the Extreme Backward Classes (EBCs) and Dalits. Besides, in post-Mandal politics, the divide between backward and forward castes has narrowed and backward unity has also broken.

“There is no backward unity and backward consolidation as it was till the early 2000s.” he added.

Among the upper castes, Rajputs and Bhumihars are political communities who lead forward caste politics. Their grip on socio-economic sphere is strong, they have landed property, own different businesses and are known for their muscle power in the rural belt, he said.

Madan seems right. Of the 12 newly elected upper castes MPs, six are Rajputs, three Bhumihars, two Brahmins and one Kayasth.

Similarly, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) castes like Yadav, Kurmi-Kushwaha, who are dominant castes and
are also a political community, assert themselves in electoral politics. This time (2024 Lok Sabha polls) seven MPs are Yadavs and five MPs belong to the Kurmi-Kushwaha communities.

According to political commentator D M Diwakar, the dominant among upper castes as well as among OBCs
control electoral politics in comparison to other castes, which are poor, marginalised and weak.

“The class character of those in electoral politics in Bihar has not changed much since the last caste census in 1931 and the 1935 Act. It is nothing but the continuation of a Brahminical order today. The poor, weak and
deprived sections are not getting proportionate political representation”, said Diwakar, former director
of A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna.

He said it was an irony that the non-producer class’s dominance continues in electoral politics. “This
can be changed if other recommendations of the Mandal Commission are implemented in education and land reforms are done in the state”, he added.

Take, for instance, the landless Musahars, the poorest of the poor and most marginalised Dalit caste, whose
population is 3.0872% in the state, which is more or less close to the Rajput population of 3.4505%, as per the recent caste survey report. But only one MP, Jitan Ram Manjhi, belonging to Musahar community, got elected from their traditional reserved parliamentary constituency of Gaya. Manjhi is former chief minister and founder of Hindustani Awam Morcha, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the state.

“Musahars have not yet emerged as a political community and are not politically organised till date due their poor socio-economic condition, said Madan.

The Bihar caste survey report also exposed a close link of the non-political dominant castes with high
migration rate, poverty and low income. The socio-economic data confirmed that poverty is rampant in Bihar, with 34.13% of all families in the state classified poor. The number of poor families is highest among Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), followed by OBCs and EBCs.

As per the data, 42.93% SC families and 42.70% ST families are poor, while 33.16 % OBC families and 33.58% EBC families are also poor. Among the SCs, poverty is highest among the Musahar community,
known as one of India's most marginalised groups in the caste hierarchy. About 54% of Musahar families are poverty-stricken, followed by 53% among Bhuiyan and 42% among Chamar or Mochi.

Among the OBCs, 35.87% families of Yadavs are poor followed by 34.32% Kushwahas and 29.9% Kurmis. The survey found that the monthly income of 34.13% of all families in the state is a meagre Rs 6,000. This means all of them survive on an income of Rs 200 per day.

It is a hard fact that there are several parliamentary seats in the state were won by the upper castes in the last four Lok Sabha elections (since 2009). These seats include Begusarai, Maharajganj, Vaishali, Darbhanga, Munger, Nawada, Patna Sahib and Buxar. Since the early 1990s till date, most of the known  “Bahubali" (strongmen) politicians, some of them criminal-turned-politicians, belong to upper castes, who also play a major role in tilting the balance in favour of their caste persons in elections.

However, in 2024, some change has been reported. For the first time since 1952, the Aurangabad seat was won by a Kushwaha candidate from RJD. Abhay Kushwaha was elected and he became the first non-Rajput to
achieve this.

Going by the latest trends in electoral politics, popular Hindi slogans of social justice "jiski jitni sankhya bhari, uski utni bhagidari” (the greater the number, the greater will be his participation) or “jitni abaadi, utni hissedari” (the greater the population, the greater the share) remains on paper even after caste survey report.

As only 20 MPs belonging to the Other OBCs and EBCs have elected, which is 50% of the total 40 seats. The
OBCs (27.2%) and EBCs (36.01%) have a combined population of 63%, but are still lagging to challenge the
dominance of the upper castes in electoral politics.

Madan pointed out that the Bihar caste survey report had failed to generate any politics contrary to expectations that backward castes would be united, which did not happen.

Ironically, only two MPs belonging to Muslim community were elected this time. Muslims constitutes 17.7%
of Bihar’s population.

“The gap between the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan, which is a part of Ppposition INDIA bloc and BJP-led NDA was 27% votes in 2019. This has come down to just 9% this time. This figure confirms the fact that the Mahagathbandhan has made a huge comeback, largely on the basis of backward castes, Dalits and
Musim votes,” said Soroor Ahmad, a political
commentator, adding that there were two takers of backward castes votes – the ruling JD-U of Nitish Kumar as well as RJD of Tejashwi Yadav.

“This was totally different from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh where Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav alone took away majority of backward votes. The BJP had Yogi Adityanath and upper castes as its face. It was a strategy not only in Bihar but also in West Bengal, Maharashtra and UP to field less numbers of Muslim to prevent the possibility of polarisation by BJP”, he added.

Six Dalits have elected from six reserved seats. The NDA has a strong support base among Dalits. Two of its allies -- LJP(R) headed by Chirag Paswan and HAM’s Jitan Ram Manjhi -- are Dalit leaders. Of the six reserved seats, BJP’s allies LJP(R) won three seats including Hajipur, one seat each was by other allies JD-U and HAM. Only one reserved seat of Sasaram was won by Congress.

RJD has not won any reserved seat in the state after the 2004 elections.

Bihar has been a hub of mandal politics since the 1990s and chief minister Nitish Kumar's JD-U and former CM Lalu Prasad's RJD have ruled the state in this period, raising the hope to implement their commitment of social
justice into practice. But they are yet to ensure political representation in accordance with the population.