Looking to step up OBC outreach after Lok Sabha setback, BJP falls back on Shivraj Chouhan

Addressing Bihar BJP OBC Morcha event held to commemorate freedom fighter Ramphal Mandal, Union minister and ex-MP CM counters Oppn's caste narrative.

Chouhan has made his mark as a popular chief minister of Madhya Pradesh for close to two decades. (PTI Photo)

In what is being seen as an attempt at outreach towards Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), the BJP’s backward caste morcha in Bihar invited Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for a public event in Patna Friday to commemorate freedom fighter Ramphal Mandal, a Dhanuk from Sitamarhi who was executed for killing four officials during the Quit India Movement.

At a time when the BJP has been facing pointed attacks from the Congress and socialist parties of north India over various issues related to the Constitution and reservations, Chouhan, who made his mark as a popular chief minister of Madhya Pradesh for close to two decades, told the Bihar BJP OBC Morcha’s event, “Our opponents just make tall claims. They have never respected the backward castes. If anyone has actually respected the backward castes, it is the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

“Modi ji gave constitutional status to the OBC Commission. All backwards and extremely backwards were accorded respect. Be it the Kendriya Vidyalayas or other institutions, it is the Modi government that took steps to ensure that backward children study there. If anyone has made proper use of the available provisions, it is the BJP government,” said Chouhan, who belongs to the OBC Kirar community.

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Recalling that Mandal had killed four officials and happily accepted that he did so in the court, Chouhan said there were countless people who “embraced death with the Bhagavad Gita in hand and ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ on their lips, without their legs trembling”. He said that Mandal did not agree with his lawyers’ suggestion not to accept what he did, adding he felt that thousands of Ramphal Mandals would be born if one is martyred.

Chouhan then talked about the Modi government’s vision for the poor – the proposed construction of two crore houses in rural areas and one crore houses in urban areas, including 13 lakh houses in Bihar over the next five years.

In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the BJP put up a below par performance in Uttar Pradesh, winning just 33 seats out of 80, with the party insiders suggesting that an erosion of OBC and SC votes was a key reason for its setback.

While the ruling party managed to do better in Bihar, there was a buzz that key OBC votes, like those of Kushwahas, had shifted in several seats to the Opposition INDIA bloc comprising the RJD, Congress and Left.

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Chouhan, who won his own Lok Sabha election in Vidisha by about 10 lakh votes, has come out of political uncertainty following his removal as the CM, getting rehabilitated as a key minister in the Narendra Modi-led NDA 3.0 government.

He is one of the most popular OBC faces in the BJP now. And his address in Bihar is being seen as a signal to the OBCs and EBCs, whose large sections had been with the BJP over the last several years but seem to have switched sides to a degree in the Lok Sabha polls.

Vikas Pathak

Vikas Pathak is deputy associate editor with The Indian Express and writes on national politics. He has over 17 years of experience, and has worked earlier with The Hindustan Times and The Hindu, among other publications. He has covered the national BJP, some key central ministries and Parliament for years, and has covered the 2009 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and many state assembly polls. He has interviewed many Union ministers and Chief Ministers. Vikas has taught as a full-time faculty member at Asian College of Journalism, Chennai; Symbiosis International University, Pune; Jio Institute, Navi Mumbai; and as a guest professor at Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi. Vikas has authored a book, Contesting Nationalisms: Hinduism, Secularism and Untouchability in Colonial Punjab (Primus, 2018), which has been widely reviewed by top academic journals and leading newspapers. He did his PhD, M Phil and MA from JNU, New Delhi, was Student of the Year (2005-06) at ACJ and gold medalist from University Rajasthan College in Jaipur in graduation. He has been invited to top academic institutions like JNU, St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and IIT Delhi as a guest speaker/panellist. ... Read More

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