Bihar Chief Ministers | BP Mandal: Short tenure as CM, outsized legacy for OBC reservations commission

A rising Yadav leader at the time was Bindheshwari Prasad Mandal, or BP Mandal, a supporter of socialist leader Dr Ram Manohar Lohia. He became a Health Minister in the state, but later parted ways with Lohia over disagreements to form his own party, the Shoshit Dal. Satish Prasad Singh, another Other Backward Classes (OBC) leader from his new party, was chosen to temporarily assume the Chief Minister’s post, until Mandal (then a Member of Parliament) was made a representative in the state legislature.

In fact, Mandal had approached the Governor to stake his claim for a majority in September 1967. However, the Governor had said that he could not be invited as he was not a member of the State Legislature. This prompted his decision to seek a nomination.

After Mandal’s nomination to the Legislative Council, Singh resigned. On February 1, 1968, Mandal took the oath as the seventh Chief Minister of Bihar. Within 10 days of oath-taking, his five-member Cabinet expanded to a total of 38 ministers — the largest in Bihar’s history till that time — to accommodate members of his ally parties. In the Mandal government, Congress was the biggest ally of Shoshit Dal among some small parties like Jan Kranti Dal.

Such a mix of parties gave way to instability. A no-confidence motion, moved by Karpoori Thakur of Samyukta Socialist Party (who would become the CM a few years later) on March 18, 1968, was debated and voted on the same day. At least 17 Congress MLAs, primarily from the faction led by ex-CM Binodanand Jha, defied the party whip and voted in favour of the motion. The Mandal government thus fell within seven weeks, while the ex-Congress leaders formed the Loktantrik Congress Dal.

Soon, by-elections were held for the Madhepura Lok Sabha seat vacated by Mandal. He contested it successfully. In this period, Lohia passed away in October 1967. Mandal then joined the Socialist Party and was elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly from Madhepura on his new party ticket in 1972. Four years later, he again made the switch to the Lok Sabha, now on a Janata Party ticket.

Born in Murho estate in Bhagalpur (now in Madhepura district), Mandal was a veteran politician, first getting elected to the Bihar Assembly in 1952 from a double-member seat named Triveniganj-cum-Madhepura on a Congress ticket. Such seats were introduced at the time to ensure representation of social groups in 1952 and 1957 polls.

He lost the constituency (renamed as Madhepura) in 1957 but returned to the Bihar Assembly in 1962. Mandal contested from Madhepura in the Lok Sabha in 1967 and won.

How Mandal is remembered today

Mandal’s tenure as chief minister of Bihar was brief, remarkable mainly for giving Bihar its first Yadav CM. History remembers him as the head of the Second OBC Commission (or the Mandal Commission), formed during the Morarji Desai-led Janata Party government in 1979. Its 1980 report recommended 27% reservation for OBCs in government jobs and educational institutions.

After the Congress government’s inaction, it was only in 1990 that the government of Prime Minister V P Singh announced its intention to implement the report. Despite severe backlash from upper castes, it paved the way for OBC assertion and fundamentally altered the politics of North India.

After Mandal’s resignation as Chief Minister, a government was formed with the support of the Congress faction led by Binodanand Jha and Kamakhya Narain Singh of the Jan Kranti Dal. Bhola Paswan Shastri became the Chief Minister — the first from the Scheduled Castes (SC) in Bihar. However, facing political pressure, particularly to allocate certain portfolios to his allies, Shastri resigned, leading to the dissolution of the Assembly and imposition of President’s rule — another first for the state.

The State Assembly elected in 1967 thus witnessed four Chief Ministers — Mahamaya Prasad Sinha, Satish Prasad Singh, BP Mandal, and Bhola Paswan Shastri — along with President’s Rule.

One interpretation of these tenures is that the Congress failed to read or understand the aspirations of the OBCs and suffered the loss of majority in Bihar in 1967, for the first time since Independence, as a result. The hung Assembly provided a chance to two OBCs and one SC leader to run the state, albeit for short periods. Fresh elections were held in early 1969, but this period would impact politics going forward.