As both NDA and INDIA play the micro caste game in Bihar, 1+1 isn’t always 2

As the BJP banks on its Narendra Modi card and the Opposition INDIA bloc frames its campaign around “saving democracy and the Constitution”, voters in South Bihar where polling will be held on April 19 largely deploy caste to spell out their choices.

However, it is not caste as in the broad framework of backwards vs forwards, as understood in Bihar till recently. Now, it plays out in micro patterns that change from one constituency to another, even as no one talks about a caste census – which too the Opposition has been pitching.

The first to realise the potential of breaking traditional caste hegemonies, the BJP began its outreach to individual groups a decade ago. So if the Kushwahas have a representation both in BJP state president and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, as well as BJP ally Upendra Kushwaha, Kurmis have been brought into the umbrella through the JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar. Dusadhs are seen to be looking at the BJP after it made space for LJP (Ramvilas) leader Chirag Paswan, while Musahars have a representation in NDA ally and former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi.

However, some BJP leaders are privately concerned that these localised caste-based permutations and combinations have made the Lok Sabha elections in Bihar a local affair rather than a single-theme national election that the party would have preferred, with focus on the PM – and, that a repeat of the 2019 NDA tally of 39 seats out of 40 could be difficult.

Another reason for the breach in the caste front the BJP was banking on is the change in the hide-bound RJD, which has for long been identified with only two groups, Muslims and Yadavs. Under Tejashwi Yadav, it has started reaching out too, with the former deputy CM even coining a catchy acronym for