With the Lok Sabha elections around the corner, the BJP’s top leadership is trying to penetrate the Muslim-Yadav (MY) equation of the RJD and the Lav-Kush equation of the JD(U) in Bihar.
Muslims and Yadavs are the core vote bank of the RJD and have been loyal to Lalu Prasad Yadav for several years in Bihar. Muslims constitute 17.8 per cent and Yadavs 14.26 per cent of the population of the state as per the recently-released caste-based survey of Bihar.
The BJP’s top leadership believes that the Muslim vote bank can be sliced through third front parties like the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM, but the Yadav community is a tough nut to crack.
As a result, the BJP is bringing Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav to Bihar for an event in order to slice a percentage of the Yadav vote bank in Bihar.
The party leaders believe that the top leadership gave the charge of Madhya Pradesh to Mohan Yadav only due to the caste-based survey report of Bihar which put the population of Yadavs at 14.26 per cent in the state.
The total population of Bihar is around 13 crore which means there are around 1 crore, 90 lakh Yadavs in the state.
The BJP has been trying to break into the Yadav vote bank in Bihar for a long time. It has projected leaders like Nityanand Rai, who was given the post of Minister of State for Home in the Narendra Modi Cabinet, only to give a message to the Yadav voters that the saffron party cares for them.
Nand Kishore Yadav is another leader who was a minister during the NDA Government in Bihar. Nawal Kishore Yadav is another leader of the Yadav caste. Even, BJP senior leader Bhupender Yadav served as an incharge for a long time with the aim to give a message to the community that the party gives importance to the Yadavs.
Nikhil Anand, National General Secretary of the BJP’s OBC wing said, “People from the Yadav caste are getting associated with the BJP. Our party is capable of picking leaders from the grass roots and giving good posts to them at the highest level. Mohan Yadav is an example of this.
“Our party is concerned about the workers at the ground level and this is the reason why it has emerged as the largest party in the world. The BJP is giving representation to Yadav leaders at the national level. Leaders like Rao Inderjit Singh, Bhupender Yadav and Nityanand Rai are part of the Union Cabinet. Hans Raj Ahir is Chairman of the OBC wing. Bandaru Dattatre is another leader of BJP who belongs to a backward caste and is currently holding the post of Governor of Haryana,” said Nikhil Anand, National General Secretary of the BJP’s OBC wing.
“Mohan Yadav has been invited by a social organisation Krishna Chetana Manch and the event will be held in Sri Krishna Memorial Hall Patna on January 18. As he is the Chief Minister of a state, BJP workers are also enthusiastic about it. His presence will obviously give a positive message in the Yadav community,” Anand said.
Due to the leadership of Narendra Modi, the BJP leaders believe that he has an impact on 15 per cent to 35 per cent of Yadav voters in Bihar depending on the constituency and they want to enhance the figure by 15 per cent to clinch a sizable vote bank of the Yadavs.
However, RJD leaders claimed that the arrival of Mohan Yadav would not make any impact on the RJD’s vote bank.
“Yadavs are core voters of the RJD and Lalu Prasad Yadav and the arrival of Mohan Yadav will not impact us. When Bhupender Yadav was incharge of the BJP’s Bihar unit in 2015 and 2020 Assembly elections, the RJD under the leadership of Lalu Prasad Yadav in 2015 won 80 seats in the Assembly elections and 75 seats under the leadership of Tejashwi Yadav in 2020 in Bihar,” said Mritunjay Tiwari, the spokesperson of the RJD.
“Lalu Prasad Yadav is an ideologue in Bihar. He has done many things for Backward Class and Dalit people in the state. No one has forgotten it. The vote bank of the RJD is intact and no one intrudes into it. I doubt if the BJP would be able to save its core vote bank of upper caste and trader community,” Tiwari said.
Apart from the Yadavs, the BJP is also targeting the Lav-Kush (Kurmi and Kushwaha) voters of Bihar. Kurmi and Kushwaha are the core voters of Nitish Kumar and the JD(U) and the saffron leaders started ‘Operation Lav-Kush’ in 2022 in Bihar.
The BJP’s top leadership appointed Samrat Choudhary, a prominent Kushwaha leader, as the state President of the party. The BJP also included the Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal as an alliance partner in the NDA.
Upendra Kushwaha is another prominent leader of the Kushwaha community having a population of around 4.6 per cent in Bihar as per the caste-based survey.
