INDIA
Bihar: Ruling BJP Candidate List Shows Party Continues to Rely on Upper Castes
File Photo: PTI
Patna: For Bihar's ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), the upper castes matter more than others. This is clear as the saffron party has played a calculated caste card in selecting candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
In the party's official list of 17 candidates, 10 belong to the upper castes, which is nearly 60% of its total candidates.
BJP has been contesting 17 of 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state and its allies, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United is contesting 16 seats, Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) five seats and one seat each by HAM of former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and RLM of former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha.
While BJP might be displaying its love for OBCs (other backward classes) and projecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an OBC leader, the fact is that the party leadership is still banking on the upper caste arithmetic in the state.
A senior BJP leader, belonging to the Bhumihar community, powerful landed upper castes, told NewsClick on the condition of anonymity that this reflects the party's confidence in supporting its traditional base of upper castes, which remains intact in Bihar.
"The party has given more importance to upper castes in its list of candidates. Our party understands that it enjoy overwhelming support of upper castes. The party is dominated by upper caste leaders, whose faces played major role in winning polls", he added.
The BJP leader further claimed that his party had successfully sent a political message by giving majority tickets to upper caste candidates. "BJP has made it loud and clear that it has more faith in upper castes than others", he said.
According to BJP's list of candidates, five belong to the Rajput caste, followed by two for the Bhumihar caste, wo Brahmins and one candidate from the Kayastha community.
The party has renominated most of its upper caste MPs except Ashwani Kumar Choubey, who is a Union Minister. Choubey is an incumbent MP from Buxar Lok Sabha seat and has been replaced by Mithilesh Tiwari, a young party MLA.
What has surprised poll-watchers is that BJP has not changed its old faces, contrary to reports that new faces will replace them. The party has renominated Union ministers R K Singh from Ara, Griraj Singh from Begusarai and former Union ministers Rajeev Pratap Rudy from Saran, Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib and Radha Mohan Singh from East Champaran.
In the caste-ridden politics of the state, since the early 1990s, the BJP has been substantially relying on the upper caste vote bank and has emerged as a significant party in Bihar that claims to safeguard their interests.
Political watchers say it is well-established that upper castes have been overwhelmingly backing BJP in post-Mandal politics in the state.
Ironically, the population of upper castes has come down in the state after the 2011 census. As per last year Bihar Caste survey report, the population of upper castes, locally known as savarnas, has come down 15.52%, including 2.86% Bhumihar, 3.66% Brahmin,3.45% Rajput and 0.60% Kayasth. The remaining 4.8% are upper castes among Muslims, including Syed, Sheikh, Pathan.
According to the Bihar caste survey, there are 215 castes in Bihar and total population of Bihar is 13.7 crore, that includes 36% Extreme Backward Classes (EBCs,) 27% Other Backward Classes (OBCs),( OBCs and EBCs together account for 63%), 19% SCs (Dalits) and 1.68% STs (Adivasis).
BJP has given ticket to four OBCs, including three belonging to the Yadav caste and one from the Vaishyas. Besides tickets have also been given to two members of the EBCs and only one seat to a Dalit.
Expectedly, the party has not given any ticket to Muslims that has disappointed Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, former Union Minister, and well known Muslim face of BJP.
As per the report,s Chief Minister Kumar’s caste, Kurmi’s, population is 2.87% and his main ally RJD chief Lalu ’s caste, Yadav, is 14.26%, one of the highest among all the castes.
BJP state president Samrat Kushwaha’s caste Koeri or Kushwaha (OBC) population is 4.21%.
The caste survey report revealed that the total Hindu population is 81.9%, followed by 17.7% Muslims, 0.05% Christians,0.01% Sikh,0.08% Buddhists,0.0096% Jains and the remaining from other religions.
"This is nothing new. The BJP has been trying to make a dent in the social support base of the ruling Mahagathbandhan led by Lalu Prasad, Congress, and Left parties. This was made in public when a BJP leader pointed out that the party was worried about consolidating backward castes given an aggressive Lalu Prasad.The BJP had failed in its attempt to make a dent in Lalu's caste votes despite trying time and again. The saffron party promoted Nityanand Rai, who belongs to the Yadav caste, to state-level politics, projected him as a CM candidate and appointed him as Union minister, but that hardly made any difference", said a political watcher.
Lalu Prasad is still considered an undisputed Yadav leader, who has got overwhelming support from the community in consecutive elections.
BJP's major ally, JD-U, has given three of 16 tickets to upper caste candidates. It has mainly given tickets to OBCs and EBCs.
BJP's other ally LJP (Ram Vilas) is likely to give one of its five tickets to an upper caste candidate. The party is yet to officially announce its candidate list.
Tyre Cartel-BJP ‘Collusion’ Ruining Rubber Farmers, Plantation Workers, MSMEs, Alleges AIKS
The electoral bond scam has re-emphasised the deep rooted and unholy nexus between crony capitalists and ruling class parties, alleges the AIKS. Since the revelation of the payments made into the coffers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), several dimensions of the pay-offs and quid pro quos have emerged.
One such is a revelation laid out in the press statement issued by the AIKS. It has also come to light that the leading tyre monopolies have directly paid the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), amounts of Rs 6 crores and 15 lakhs in what appears to be to obtain government silence on “illegal cartelisation.
According to the data released by the Election Commission, BJP, the ruling party has received 6 crore rupees from CEAT and 15 lakh rupees from MRF, both monopoly manufactures. According to the AIKS, these three tyre monopolies—which were fined by Competition Commission of India (CCI) for cartelisation— have made these donations during 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The AIKS alleges that this is a quid-pro-quo arrangement to facilitate profiteering by the tyre cartel at the expense of millions of rubber farmers. “The BJP Government led by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is culpable of being a wilful colluder to policies at their behest and detrimental to farmers”, states the press release. President of AIKS, Ashok Dhawale and Secretary, Vijoo Krishnan are signatories to the press release.
The other two major players of the tyre cartel—JK Tyre and Birla Tyre—are conspicuously absent in the list. However, sister concerns of JK and Birla Conglomerate have donated handsome amounts to both BJP and Congress. Notably, the amount donated by the MRF, the mainstay of the tyre cartel, is comparatively smaller when compared to CEAT and Apollo. An in-depth scrutiny of the data is needed to ascertain whether MRF deployed the “Reliance method” of using shell companies and trusted individuals for transactions.
Besides, says the AIKS, it is clear that monopolies leading the notorious tyre cartel made these donations to the ruling party to “gag them from acting against the cartel” which is devastating the livelihood of millions of rubber farmers, plantation workers, small and medium traders, and MSMEs. The CCI judgment had disturbing insights to the market manipulation practiced by the tyre cartel. Parties that represent dominant economic and power interests have been strong votaries of the India ASEAN Free Trade Agreement which is ruining rubber farmers. Unfair trade policies are leading to import of rubber from highly subsidised ASEAN countries resulting in price crash and acute distress for rubber farmers. Cryptically states the press note, “The Prime Minister Narendra Modi who sheds crocodile tears on the plight of rubber farmers and the BJP Government actively supported the manipulations by the tyre cartel. The complicity of BJP in the whole affair needs to be exposed and their accountability has to be ensured.”
Kerala Karshaka Sangham, affiliated to the AIKS in Kerala had recently organised a siege of MRF and Apollo factories against the tyre cartel. The Kerala Karshaka Sangham-led Samyukta Karshaka Samithi, a joint forum of 11 farmers’ organisations is leading the anti-cartel struggle. One of the major demands of the struggle is to ensure that the Rs. 1788 crores fine imposed by CCI on the five tyre monopolies should be used to benefit the rubber farmers. AIKS warns the tyre cartel and the subservient ruling class parties that a powerful movement of the farmers will expose the corporate-communal nexus in the rubber sector. AIKS also salutes the LDF government in Kerala for constituting an Expert Committee to inquire about cartelisation and price formation. AIKS will exhaust all options to expose the tyre cartel and their unholy nexus.
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