In Bihar’s Yadav belt, RJD’s caste arithmetic set to be put to the Modi test

Riding high on its performance in the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, which was a vast improvement on the Lok Sabha polls a year before, the RJD-Congress alliance hopes to increase its tally in the Lok Sabha elections.

But a big test of this alliance’s strength — call it INDIA or Mahagathbandhan — will come in Madhepura, Supaul, and Jhanjharpur that go to polls on May 7. With a sizable population of Yadavs and Muslims, the RJD’s core vote bank, the three seats, along with constituencies in the Seemanchal region, hold the key to its prospects.

Of these, Madhepura and Jhanjharpur hold special significance as they have been represented by former Chief Ministers Lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra, respectively. But in an election that so far appears to be without a “wave”, each constituency has its own dynamics and electoral arithmetic amid larger national issues that have people’s attention.

Manoj Yadav, a government employee in Madhepura town, barely lifts his head from the newspaper while spelling out his voting preference — RJD. “I keep telling those voting for Modi in my office that they must remember that the pension scheme was removed under the NDA regime. Modi is privatising everything. How will the youth get jobs? If Modi returns to power, the country will go down further,” he says.

In the adjacent village of Budhi, Niranjan Kumar Yadav, a 35-year-old farmer, does not feel the need to remain loyal to the RJD. “The RJD has taken Yadavs and Muslims for granted. Nobody talks of farmers and floods. Lalu Yadav used to say the king would come from the ballot box and not from the womb of the queen. Now he alone decides who will be king. He should have fielded a candidate who is an active leader,” he says.

Niranjan Kumar’s anger