Bihar: Political history
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Extremely backward classes
EBC politics, 1951-2020
From: November 11, 2020: The Times of India
See graphic:
The EBCs in Bihar politics, 1951-2020
Mahagathbandhan
c.2015: ‘Nitish wanted to return, but Lalu said no’
April 5, 2019: The Times of India
RJD chief Lalu Prasad has claimed that Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar wanted to return to the ‘mahagathbandhan’ within six months of walking out and allying with BJP, but Lalu rebuffed his outreach because he had “lost trust in him (Nitish Kumar) completely.”
In his soon to be released book, the former Bihar CM has also claimed Nitish Kumar sent JD(U) vice-president and confidante Prashant Kishor as an emissary to him on five different occasions, attempting on each occasion, to convince Lalu to facilitate Kumar’s re-entry into the “secular” fold.
“Kishor seemed to indicate that if I were to assure in writing my party’s support to JD(U), the latter would pull out of the BJP alliance and rejoin the mahagathbandhan. Though I was not bitter with Nitish, I had lost trust in him completely. Moreover, I was not sure how the people who had voted for the grand alliance in 2015, and the other parties that had united against the BJP all over the country, would react if I accepted Kishor’s offer,” Lalu has said in his forthcoming book ‘Gopalganj to Raisina: My Political Journey’, co-authored by Nalin Verma and to be published by Rupa Publications India.
JD (U) secretary general K C Tyagi has categorically denied Lalu’s claim of Nitish ever trying to get back to mahagathbandhan. “I can say this in the capacity of one of the top functionary of the JD (U) that Nitish Kumar never wanted to get back to RJD after severing ties with it in 2017. Had there been any such intention, then it must have come out in the internal party discussions. JD (U)’s rejection of RJD is permanent and Nitish Kumar will be the last person to make compromise on corruption. Thus, the claims made by Lalu are false,” Tyagi told TOI on Thursday. When contacted, Prashant Kishor, however, refused to confirm or deny Lalu’s claim that he met him. “I’m not saying anything, not confirming anything. You can write whatever you want,” Kishor said.
Bihar’s deputy CM Sushil Modi, however, rubbished Lalu’s statements. “Lalu has made a bogus claim,” Sushil Modi told.
Muslims
2020 Nov: No Muslim MLA in ruling party
Madan Kumar, November 18, 2020: The Times of India
When the 17th Bihar assembly will meet for its maiden session on November 23, there will be no member from the Muslim community in the treasury benches. This will also be the first time in the post-Independence history of Bihar legislature when there will not be any representative from the Muslim community in the cabinet.
All past cabinets in Bihar, right from those headed by the first CM Shri Krishna Sinha to the last one headed by Nitish Kumar, had at least one or more ministers from the Muslim community, old-timers recall.
Among the four NDA allies, only JD-U had fielded Muslims candidates. However, all the 11 candidates that JD-U fielded lost the elections. Among the Muslim candidates who lost, six were fielded in the Muslim dominated Seemanchal region where Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM won five seats.
Election campaign songs
2020
Anam Ajmal, October 18, 2020: The Times of India
It was a sarcastic, politically-loaded question in the form of a song, “Bihar mein ka ba?” (What’s there in Bihar?). And it elicited an equally sharp response in the form of another number. Two regional singers — Neha Rathore and Maithili Thakur — were locked in a sharp musical exchange on social media, eyes firmly set on Bihar assembly polls next month.
About two weeks ago, 23-year-old singer Neha Rathore posted her pungent track in Bhojpuri questioning the lack of development in Bihar. “Bihar mein ka ba? Corona se barbaad ba. Badh se badhaal ba (What’s there in Bihar? It’s damaged because of Corona, it’s desperate because of floods),” she sang.
Another young singer Maithili Thakur released a sharp riposte. Thakur, 20, sang about the development in a part of the state in Maithili asking people, albeit indirectly, to refrain from posing irrelevant questions.
Rathore’s inspiration came from the popular Bhojpuri rap song performed by actor Manoj Bajpai, Bambai mein ka ba (What’s there in Mumbai)?
“I don’t have a problem with any party. I ask questions because it’s my constitutional right,” she told TOI.
After Rathore’s sarcastic questions, BJP released its response through another song, “Bihar mein ee ba”, which lists the achievements of the state government and was widely promoted by BJP leaders.
“I am not a political person, and I don’t support any party. But I have a problem when everyone begins to only highlight the wrong traits of the state. Bihar has improved a lot under this government, but people have not acknowledged that,” Thakur told TOI.
Year-wise statistics
2010-15: Up to 2103% rise in Bihar MLAs' wealth
The Times of India, Nov 03 2015
Madan Kumar
Up to 2103% rise in Bihar MLAs' wealth in 5 years
A majority of Bihar legislators seem to have fared much better in creating wealth for themselves than in the lawmaking business, their primary job, over the past five years.
JD(U)'s Punam Devi Yadav leads the 160 MLAs whose wealth has increased manifold. In 2010, she had assets worth Rs 1.87 crore.Now, according to her election affidavits, it is Rs 41.34 crore, an increase of 2103%.
Many wonder if such a phenomenal growth is possible even if one takes into consideration the Election Commission's permission to show assets at their current market value. Punam is seeking re-election from Khagaria seat on a ruling party ticket.
Details of Punam's assets appear along with those of other lawmakers in a report prepared by the Bihar Election Watch and Association for Democratic Research (ADR). The report said the average increase of wealth is Rs 1.71 crore in five years.
In defence, Punam says the cost of her land multiplied many times in five years. “ Also, I bought five bighas of land during the period,“ she told TOI on Monday .
JD(U)'s Nawada MLA Purnima Yadav, who is now Congress's candidate for Govindpur, has reported 480% increase in her assets in five years from Rs 2.78 crore in 2010 to Rs 16.14 crore now.
The worth of BJP's Lakhisarai MLA Vijay Kumar Sinha's assets has gone up from Rs 4.13 crore to Rs 15.64 crore while RJD's Darbhanga (rural) MLA Lalit Kumar Yadav's assets have increased from Rs 2.83 crore to Rs 12.89 crore. The assets of Samajwadi Party's Chiraia MLA Avaneesh Kumar Singh have risen from Rs 1.25 crore to Rs 8.18 crore.
ADR's analysis says the average increase in the assets of the 160 MLAs is 199% during the five years.
Partywise, 66 of these MLAs belong to BJP; 52 to JD (U) and 12 to RJD. The list also features seven of Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha MLAs and one CPI MLA Awadhesh Kumar Rai (Bachhwara). The worth of the Communist legislator's assets has increased from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 48 lakh, up by 60%.
2014-15: How the Lalu and Nitish allied
The Times of India, Nov 09 2015
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Mayday: When Nitish called Lalu
The evening of May 16, 2014 was as depressing as it could get for Nitish Kumar. Narendra Modi's resurgent BJP had routed his JD(U) in the Lok Sabha elections. As the sun set, he swallowed his pride and called up his ally-turned-foe Lalu Prasad. “He was initially cold,“ Nitish recounted to a group of journalists. “But he eventually called back the next morning.“
Obviously the realisation had dawned on both that if they didn't hang together, they would hang separately. And with the pact between the two sealed, Nitish had given himself a fresh chance. And as the results showed, he has pulled off a Houdini-like act of emerging as the clear leader of Bihar's “secular“ alliance.
The achievement can potentially turn him into the spearhead of the next “secular“ challenge to PM Modi, and Congress and others may find themselves having to fend off pressure from sections of the “intelligentsia“ to declare him the “shadow“ PM candidate. As a prospect, this appeared inconceivable only a few months ago, and would not have been possible but for his fairytale comeback. Beginning with his dramatic phone call to Lalu after the 2014 LS cam paign in which they savaged each other, Nitish succeeded in persuading the RJD chief to contest the byelections in July as one front. Nitish knew that he would not be able to hold his own against BJP and feared that the loss in byelections might spark desertions from JD(U).
The decision paid off with the “secular“ front of JD(U), RJD and Congress restricting BJP to four of the 10 seats in contention -an outcome that restored their battered morale, staved off the risk of desertions, and cleared the way for the formation of the Mahagathbandhan in the assembly election. There was a misstep too. Stepping down as CM for Jitan Ram Manjhi turned out to be a costly bungle, but Nitish spared no effort in correcting it. While his loyalists made life tough for Manjhi, Nitish reversed his decision to quit and ensured that Lalu did not come to Manjhi's rescue.
He also began the project to resurrect the Janata Parivar.The move did not go anywhere but it worked brilliantly in restoring the perception of Nitish as the chief “secular“ warrior who could prevent Bihar from being swallowed up by “communal forces“.
The skillfully-stoked suggestion that Mulayam Singh Yadav will be the “secular“ PM candidate saw the SP boss, by then father-in-law to Lalu's youngest daughter, vigorously weighing in for Nitish whenever the RJD chief 's enthusiasm for a “secular“ front in which his primacy was not acknowledged began flagging.
Interestingly , the period also saw reports based on “speculation“ about BJP, wishing to revive the alliance with JD(U), something which many in Patna saw as part of a psychological operation. Nitish's tacticians were also careful not to put all their eggs in the “Yadav basket“. He opened communication with Congress and found a new ally in Rahul Gandhi, who strongly argued for Nitish to be recognised as a “secular“ player.Lalu initially resisted being railroaded into conceding parity to JD(U) when his RJD had done better in the LS polls, but had to give in.
By the time the talks en ered the final lap, Nitish had gained the upper hand and hreatened to go with Congress rather than wait indefinitely or Lalu to come on board. He said as much in his last meet ng with Mulayam and Lalu on June 7 and left, saying he had to be in Patna the next morning.The threat worked and by the ime Nitish reached the airport, he had both Mulayam and Lalu trying to reach out to him.
Nitish was seen as the Abhimanyu who knew how to break through the `chakravyuh' inside enemy lines. But here was always the question whether he would be able to come out of it. Not anymore!
2005: President’s Rule
The Times of India, Jan 15 2016
Ex-Law Mantri Met CJI, `But Was Scared To Broach Topic'
Former Union law minister H R Bhardwaj said he was under “tremendous pressure from the Manmohan Singh government“ to get a favourable order from the Supreme Court on UPA 's decision to impose President's rule in Bihar in 2005 to prevent the JD(U)-BJP combine from coming to power.
Bhardwaj said he had even met the then Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, who headed the five-judge constitution bench dealing with the case, in this regard, but “could not summon the nerves to broach the topic“. The bench, by a 3-2 majority, had declared the imposition of President's rule a misuse of Article 356, and “clearly politically motivated, based on a skewed report by then governor Buta Singh“.
The former law minister said Justice Sabharwal was a family friend, but a very tough judge. “I could not muster the courage to ask for any favour on the issue when we met over a cup of coffee,“ he said at a function to inaugurate the Moot Court Hall of National Law University , Delhi, named after the late Justice Sabharwal.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley, who had attacked UPA for imposing President's rule to keep a Nitish Kumar led JD(U)-BJP coalition from forming the government, was also present at the function.
Elaborating on his predicament when the President's rule was challenged in the SC, Bhardwaj said, “I was in deep trouble at the time. So many horses from different breeds were part of the Union Cabinet, and I was told that I would lose my job (if the SC struck down President's rule).“
The remarks were immediately read as a reference to the pressure that Lalu Prasad, whose RJD was a component of UPA, is said to have brought to bear upon PM Singh for the dissolution of the assembly after JD(U) and BJP mustered the necessary numbers to form the government.
On January 24, 2006, the SC minced no words in declaring the dissolution of Bihar's newly-elected assembly unlawful. It said the council of ministers should have verified facts stated in the governor's report before hurriedly accepting it as gospel truth.
The indictment led the then President A P J Abdul Kalam to consider quitting.Kalam had ratified the dissolution at the instance of the Union Cabinet which, in order to secure instant dissolution, secured his nod through fax when he was in Russia.
Interestingly , Justice Sabharwal pronounced the majority decision without specifying what the division among the five-judge bench was. But Bhardwaj appeared to have inner knowledge about the working of the bench and told the media that it was a 3-2 verdict, which later turned out to be true.
2018
Lalu in jail, but BJP-JD(U) fail to breach RJD fortress
Piyush Tripathi, March 15, 2018: The Times of India
The BJP-JD(U) combine failed to defeat RJD in Bihar bypolls despite Lalu Prasad being behind bars after his conviction in fodder scam cases and many in his family facing corruption charges. RJD retained both Araria parliamentary and Jehanabad assembly seats while BJP held on to the Bhabhua assembly constituency.
This was the first electoral battle in the state since chief minister Nitish Kumar parted ways with the Grand Alliance of RJD and Congress and formed government with BJP support in July last year.
The byelection in Araria was necessitated following the death of sitting MP Md Taslimuddin. Jehanabad and Bhabhua assembly seats fell vacant following the death of Mundrika Prasad Yadav (RJD) and Anand Bhushan Pandey (BJP).
Taslimuddin’s son Sarfaraz Alam, who contested on the RJD ticket, defeated BJP’s Pradeep Kumar Singh by a margin of 61,788 votes. The combined strength of JD(U) and BJP, who had contested separately in 2014 poll, failed to breach the RJD stronghold. However, while Taslimuddin won by a margin of 1,46,504 votes in 2014, his son’s margin fell in the bypoll. Sarfaraz, who had won from Jokihat assembly constituency on a JD(U) ticket in 2015 polls, quit the party and the seat and joined RJD just before the bypoll.
RJD’s victory margin in Jehanabad increased by 4,715 votes as its candidate Kumar Krishna Mohan retained his father’s seat by defeating Abhiram Sharma of JD(U). Incidentally, JD(U) was requested by BJP to contest from Jehanabad after RLSP, led by Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, and HAM(S), led by former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, had staked their claims over the seat. Manjhi later quit NDA and joined the RJD-led Grand Alliance before the byelection.
BJP’s Rinky Rani Pandey retained the Bhabhua assembly seat that her husband Anand Bhushan Pandey represented before his death. She defeated Shambhu Singh Patel of Congress by 15,490 votes. Rinki’s husband had won the seat by defeating Pramod Kumar Singh of JD(U) by 7,744 votes in 2015 assembly election.
Reacting to the results, RJD tweeted from its president Lalu Prasad’s official handle, “The more you pour the fuel of conspiracy on Lalu, the brighter will his lantern burn. Millions of salutations to the people of Bihar for upholding justice. This is a victory of truth over falsehood.”
NDA, on the other hand, maintained that the bypolls maintained status quo on the three seats. “There was a sympathy wave. Nonetheless, if there was a Lalu factor, why didn’t it work in Bhabhua?” said deputy CM and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi in a tweet.
2020
Nov: Caste composition of Bihar assembly
Madan Kumar, November 17, 2020: The Times of India
One in every four members in new Bihar assembly will be from upper caste
PATNA: One in every four members in the new Bihar assembly will be a ‘Savarn’ (upper caste), the social group which played a major role in increasing the BJP’s tally to 74 in the just concluded election, compared to 53 in 2015 polls.
The total number of Savarn legislators in the new assembly is 64 in the 243-member house, 45 of them from the NDA allies (33 from the BJP, nine from the JD(U), two from the VIP and one from the HAM-S).
Altogether 17 upper caste legislators have won the election from the Mahagathbandhan allies. Eight each won from the RJD and the Congress, while the rest is from the CPI.
Besides the two major allies, one Savarn legislator also came from the LJP (Matihani MLA Raj Kumar Singh) and one as Independent (Chakai MLA Sumit Kumar Singh).
In Bihar, Savarn group comprises castes like Rajput, Bhumihar, Brahmin and Kayastha. Of the total 64 Savarn legislators, maximum 28 hail are Rajputs, 21 (Bhumihars), 12 (Brahmins) and three Kayasthas.
The upper caste members also registered a remarkable increase in their number in the just-concluded election compared to the 2015 when altogether 52 members from Savarn group had won the election. Thus, there will be an increase of 12 upper caste members in the new house.
In 2015, altogether 20 legislators from Rajput caste, 18 Bhumihars, 11 Brahmins and three Kayasthas had won the election. Compared to the 2015 election, there is an increase of 8 Rajput members, 3 Bhumihars and one Brahmin. The number of Kayasthas remain the same.
Like the upper castes, the BJP’s other core voter group – the Vaishya/ Baniya castes (member of trading community)- have registered a remarkable growth in their number. Altogether 24 members from Vaishya/ Baniya castes have made entry in the state legislative house, compared to 16 in the 2015 election.
With an increase of eight members, the Vaishyas will be the fourth largest group in the assembly after the Savarn (64), Yadavas (52) and the SC/ST members (40).
Though 52 Yadavas have been elected to the assembly this year, their number has decreased by nine, compared to 61 elected in the 2015 election.
Other agrarian castes like Kurmi (to which CM Nitish Kumar belongs) and Koeri (Kushwaha) too have reported decrease in their numbers in the house compared to the 2015 election. The number of Kurmi has decreased to nine from 12 in the last assembly, while Koeri to 16 from 20.
Despite the victory of five Muslim MLAs from Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM, the total number of Muslim has decreased to 19 from 24 in the last assembly.
2022
Why Nitish left BJP/ Aug
BUSINESS WITH BJP: FIVE THINGS THAT MADE NITISH UNCOMFORTABLE
1 Having lorded over the NDA coalition since it came into being, Nitish Kumar could never reconcile himself to the loss of clout within it because of the sharp dip in JD(U) numbers and BJP’s higher tally. More so, because he was convinced that BJP had conspired with Chirag Paswan to peg him down
2 BJP, which rejected the sabotage charge, kept its commitment to support him for CM, but changed the terms of trade by denying JD(U) the speaker’s post and bringing in new faces as two deputy CMs in place of Sushil Modi, with whom Nitish was comfortable. Although Nitish retained the same number of berths and important departments, and also had near-monopoly on key appointments, he smarted under the feeling of having been denied the primacy he had enjoyed earlier and deserved even now
3 BJP’s work on the ground to expand its influence among social categories, especially the MBCs who have been an important part of his core constituency, added to his discomfort. The work on the ground has been helped by Narendra Modi’s persona as ‘OBC PM’ and the goodwill that has accrued to him because of welfare schemes. Unlike in the past, Nitish could not have his way with the new version of BJP which was, very often, not scared of speaking its mind on issues where it disagreed with JD(U), chiefly those concerning the Hindu-Muslim question
4 Tension with speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, which had its roots in a local turf fight, snowballed into a flashpoint with the speaker complaining of humiliation and avenging the slights by encouraging BJP MLAs to ask uncomfortable questions of the government; especially those relating to the home department held by Nitish. BJP tried to work out a truce but ignored hints that the presiding officer be dumped
5 JD(U)’s internal tension over the appointment of RCP Singh as Union minister: The choice came as a surprise because Singh, a Kurmi like Nitish, also happened to be the party chief, and caused heartburn with rival contender Lalan Singh. Nitish blamed the appointment on BJP: a version refuted by the saffron party and found implausible by others. It also annoyed RCP Singh who moved closer to BJP, leading to his estrangement with the CM and allegation by Lalan that the ex-party chief is a BJP tool. Lalan was the prime mover of regime change manoeuvre
