Nitish deals political masterstroke

Although EBCs constitute around 35 per cent of the state’s population, they are divided into more than 100 different castes, which prevents them from forging a political force akin to the Other Backward Castes (OBCs), such as the Yadavs, the Kurmis and the Koeris. Political parties such as the RJD have exploited EBC disunity to their own advantage.

Before the elections, Nitish had promised the EBCs empowerment and succeeded in breaking them away from the RJD. Now, by fulfilling his pre-poll promise, he appears well on the way to consolidating the EBC vote-bank—a move that has left Laloo very jittery.

Trying to make an issue of the general category quota, Laloo slammed the new ordinance.‘‘Sixty-three per cent has gone to the upper castes,’’ he said in Patna today.

However, this approach may not get him very far. ‘‘Despite forming a major chunk of the state’s population, the EBCs have always remained the political backbenchers. But the new reservation will reverse the situation,’’ a political expert said. ‘‘I thank Nitishji for this historic decision empowering the EBCs,’’ said Uday Kant Chowdhury, the president of the Bihar Extremely Backward Class Committee.

Since 1994 when Nitish had walked out of the erstwhile Janata Dal after differences with Laloo, he had always wanted to be a backward leader. ‘‘To give the reservation to the EBCs, Nitish has been working on legal complexities since last one mont,’’ said a senior Cabinet minister.

‘‘We have taken a historic decision towards empowering the backbenchers in our society,’’ said Nitish before announcing the Cabinet decision.