Bihar’s ‘new Triveni Sangh’: Nitish-RJD, BJP vying to stitch up tripartite caste coalition

Though all the parties in Bihar have their core constituencies — OBC Vaishyas, upper castes and some sections of EBCs and Dalits for the BJP, Muslims and Yadavs for the RJD, the EBC-Dalit-non-Yadav OBC combination of the JD(U) — they have been exploring ways to build a new three-fold social combination. Just as the “Triveni Sangh” of Yadavs, Koeris, and Kurmis — three dominant OBC groups — came into existence in the early 1930s, the parties now are looking at a “ new Triveni Sangh” comprising OBCs apart from Yadavs, Koeris, Kurmis and Vaishyas, EBCs, and Dalits. These three groups constitute an estimated 40 per cent of the state’s population.

RJD national spokesperson Subodh Mehta said, “We have been saying it all along that we are ‘A to Z’ party. This can be seen right from our ticket distribution in the 2020 polls to representation in the ministry.”

Socialist leader and former MLC Prem Kumar Mani who has worked with the RJD, the JD(U), and the Lok Janshakti Party told The Indian Express, “EBCs are the biggest block among floating voters. One cannot call it a caste. Rather, it is a class. These groups have no leader, save only Mukesh Sahani who can be called a leader of only EBC Mallahs. Similarly, there has been no big Dalit leader of Jagjivan Ram’s stature in decades. It is only fair to call OBCs apart from Yadavs, Koeris, Kurmis and Yadavs, EBCs, and Dalits the new Triveni Sangh that every party has been trying to tap into.”

A JD(U) leader added that the BJP of 2014 and 2022 are different in terms of how deftly the party has worked on its social-engineering strategy by reaching out to EBCs and Dalits. “Socialist groups must not take the BJP lightly, especially if they rope in someone like Chirag Paswan or Mukesh Sahani,” said the party functionary, adding that a large chunk of EBC votes was up for grabs.

BJP national spokesperson Guru Prakash Paswan said, “When it comes to representation of the marginalised, we have taken due care of it at the state and Central level. We just had our constitutional head from a tribal community. In Bihar, we had six EBC ministers in the NDA government. We also recently sent Shambhu Sharan Patel, an EBC Dhanuk leader, to the Raja Sabha. I would like to know from deputy CM (Tejashwi Yadav) why a particular caste (Yadav) and a particular community (Muslim) together have 35 per cent representation in the new Nitish Cabinet. Both Nitish and Tejashwi talk of caste census but they do not practise assimilative politics.”

Importance of EBCs

When it comes to the Ravidas community, no party also has a grip over its votes. The community constitutes approximately four per cent of the SC population in the state. There has been no pan-Bihar Dalit leader from the segment of the electorate since former Deputy Prime Minister Jagjivan Ram. Leaders such as former CM Ram Sunder Das and former Bochahan MLA Ramai Ram were largely limited to particular regions.

As for the Paswans, who make up about 5.5 per cent of the Dalit population, only Chirag Paswan looks to be in a position to be their leader following the demise of his father and former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan. The next Lok Sabha and Assembly elections will be the first real tests of his mettle.

About 130 caste groups are classified as EBCs and they are the most crucial segment of the “new Triveni Sangh”. Each party has given symbolic representation to this group but EBCs are so varied that making some members of the Mallah, Sahani, or Dhanuk community ministers or giving some other important posts seems unlikely to work, according to political observers. Of all the parties, only the JD(U) has been able to consolidate its position in this group on the back of the Nitish Kumar government’s welfare schemes. The EBC support for the Nitish-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was reflected in the 2009 Lok Sabha results when it won 32 of the 40 seats in Bihar and in the Assembly polls the following year when the NDA bagged 206 of 243 constituencies.

But an EBC shift towards the BJP was evident in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when the party won 31 seats despite Nitish parting ways with the NDA. But the equations were in favour of the Nitish-led Mahagathbandan (grand alliance) in the 2015 Assembly elections after the alliance won 178 seats. The BJP won 53 seats and took heart from its vote share of about 25 per cent.

After Nitish’s return to the NDA fold, the party’s social combinations again benefitted the BJP-led alliance as it swept the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by winning 39 seats. The floating EBC and Dalit votes were a factor in the 2020 Assembly polls and they were evenly balanced, with the RJD-led grand alliance getting 110 seats. But the NDA managed to retain power.

Now, with Nitish back with the Mahagathbandan, the power of the “new Triveni Sangh” is likely to come into play again. EBCs and SCs are expected to play a deciding role even as the BJP plays up welfare schemes of the Centre and Nitish counters with his government’s health, education and social welfare schemes. The JD(U) has in its ranks a Dalit leader such as Ashok Kumar Choudhary while the RJD has Uday Narayan Choudhary and Shyam Rajak. The BJP has leaders such as Shivesh Ram, Sanjay Paswan, and Janak Ram.