Mandal fade-out

We are not anti-women but we want reservations for women hailing from minority and backward classes first, Mulayam Singh Yadav chanted a familiar plaint,as he stuck by his opposition to the long-pending legislation to reserve 33 per cent of seats in legislatures for women. Meanwhile,Lalu Prasad Yadav slammed the bill as a diversionary tactic,intended to deprive women from backward and minority groups. As they watch the slow waning of their political pitch,the Yadav chieftains are clinging desperately to the same appeal to identity.

In both Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,the post-Mandal dynamic seems to have given way to greater complexity and flux. The Muslim-Yadav solidarity that used to undergird a whole generation of politicians like Mulayam and Lalu now finds itself besieged. For decades,it appeared as though they had cracked the code as inter-caste jostling was channelled into the electoral skirmish,bringing new aspirations and agendas into politics. But social and economic progress hasnt always kept up with this electoral triumph,and their vote banks simply want more than just symbolic empowerment. The SP,RJD and others have also witnessed an explosion of political ambition among their own ranks,as leaders compete with each other for slices of the political pie. Yadav identity politics seems to have caught up with itself. As Dimple Yadavs recent,devastating defeat in Firozabad revealed,something subversive is at work in these former strongholds caste and community are still relevant but they no longer command automatic loyalty. The remarkable Congress revival in 2009 came at the expense of these parties in particular,the Muslim vote swung away from the SP.

In short,the search for new mobilisations is on. In Bihar,for instance,Nitish Kumar,who cannot claim a readymade patchwork of caste groupings,has had to practise a more inventive,forward-looking politics. He has,on his initiative,reserved 50 per cent panchayat seats for women. Meanwhile,his party colleague Sharad Yadav struggles to hold on to the only game he knows.