Castes fall by the wayside

The man who was jolted is RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who had hoped a return banking on Muslim-Yadav consolidation and hints of a good chunk of EBCs supporting his party. Kumar, the first to challenge Modi by setting condition for an NDA PM with “clean and secular” image in June 2012 and breaking away from the BJP in June 2013, seems to have gone silent. His official residence, 1, Anne Marg, wore a deserted look on May 16, when results were being announced.

JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP Ali Anwar told The Indian Express: “We respect the mandate. We have to accept it gracefully and work towards rebuilding the party”. Anwar used a couplet to describe Modi’s victory: “Hum sach kaha phir bhi mukadama haar gaye, woh jhuth bola aur lajawab kar diya (we spoke the truth and yet lost the case, they (BJP) told lies and made us speechless)”.

Asked if JD(U) leaders needed to regroup, Anwar said top party leadership would chart out a strategy. He said the party had taken an “ideological line” and would stick to it.  JD(U) sources said the party had been taking defeat as an outcome of the “Modi wave”. “At least, we have the solace we were the first to oppose Modi. Now, we will concentrate on Assembly elections,” said a leader close to Kumar.

The BJP, supposed to get votes only from upper castes and OBC baniyas, seems to have reached out to all sections of society because of the Modi wave. Bihar BJP legislature party leader Sushil Kumar Modi said: “We always knew that the party has not done well in Seemanchal where we lost seats like Araria and Purnea. We reckoned the NDA would get 25-30 seats. Lalu Prasad got overconfident because of the success in Seemanchal but Narendra Modi factor worked everywhere.”

In the last Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and the JD(U) got little over 38 per cent votes. The data of this election would show BJP had done well with help of small partners like the LJP and the RLSP.

The BJP got votes from  a large part of EBCs and youths across caste lines and some chunk of Yadav voters.