Caste equations, welfare schemes shape Bihar’s poll mood
The BJP holds sway over upper castes, such as Bhumihars, Banias, and Brahmins, and the ally JD(U) over Kurmis, Extremely Backward Castes, and Maha Dalits
In the run-up to the Bihar assembly polls, a photocopy shop in Gaya’s Khizarsarai was crowded with people getting their worn-out and new voter identity cards photocopied. Some of them were doing so for paperwork for the schemes the new government was expected to launch.
Welfare schemes have played a key role in determining poll outcomes, and political parties in Bihar have sought to attract voters beyond their traditional supporters, largely determined by caste, through them.
Vijay Singh, 72, a Rajput, cited welfare schemes among the reasons for his continued support for chief minister Nitish Kumar and his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Singh received ₹1,100 in August as an enhanced old-age pension. He would earlier get ₹400.
Singh, who had also undergone a free orthopedic surgery at a private hospital in Patna under the Union government’s Ayushman Scheme, said he would submit his documents to a functionary of Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) for schemes expected to be launched after the election process concludes on November 14 after two phase polling on November 6 and 11.
Roshan Rai, a Bhumihar who stood next to Singh, said he would submit his documents to a local BJP worker. “They have asked me to give a copy of my voter identity card for enrolment in the job scheme the new NDA government will launch,” Rai said.
The NDA has promised 10 million jobs to counter the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)’s pledge of a government job to each household.
Around 10 km from Khizarsara, RJD’s Zafar Ehsan collected documents at Pathran village on the other side of the Falgu river. “When we form our government, these documents will help you to get jobs,” he told a group of men.
Ehsan said the Muslims continue to firmly back the RJD for its stand on issues such as the law for sweeping changes in regulating and managing Islamic charitable endowments or waqf. He added that the Yadavs, who have traditionally been the party’s core supporters, along with Muslims, too, have rallied around the RJD since the murder of Dularchand Yadav, a supporter of Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj, on October 30.
Followers of gangster Anant Singh, the JD(U) candidate from Mokama, allegedly killed Yadav about 120 km east of Pathran. Yadav, a local strongman, was campaigning for Jan Suraaj candidate Piyush Priyadarshi in Mokama when he was shot and crushed to death. Anant Singh, who denied his involvement in the murder, was arrested on November 1.
Political experts said the murder further polarised the voters on caste lines. “Some Yadavs voting for NDA will now back RJD,” Ehsan said.
Vijay Singh said the upper-caste Bhumihars will strongly back the NDA as Anant Singh belongs to their caste.
The BJP holds sway over upper castes, such as Bhumihars, Banias, and Brahmins, and the ally JD(U) over Kurmis, Extremely Backward Castes, and Maha Dalits, considered among the poorest. Other NDA partners, Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party, Jitin Ram Manjhi’s Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM), and Upender Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha, have other Dalit groups and Kushwahas among their core supporters.
The opposition RJD-led alliance of the seven parties also has a caste-based voter base, except for the Congress, whose influence in Bihar has significantly waned. The RJD, the largest party in the alliance, banks on Muslims and Yadavs (M-Y), the Left parties on mostly poor Dalit landless farmers, and Mukesh Sahani’s Vikasheel Insan Party on Mallahs.
At Gehlaur in Gaya, Sharavan Kumar Manjhi, 21, a farm labourer, said he is firmly behind Jitin Ram Manjhi’s HAM. “If Dashrath Baba told the world about our daily life struggles, Jitin Ram Manjhi gave us a political voice,” he said, referring to Dashrath Manjhi, also known as the Mountain Man.
Dashrath Manjhi carved a path through hills, using a hammer and a chisel, over 22 years to shorten travel between two blocks in Gaya after his wife died for the want of medical care due to the remoteness of Gehlaur.
Around 15 km away in Arai Keshopur, Vijayraj, 48, a Dalit, who works as a farm labourer for ₹300 daily or 8-10 kg of rice, said “Babu Saheb”, a Bhumihar landlord, has decided who they will vote for. Vijayraj and other members of his community live on government land along the Rajgir-Gaya highway. “If the government forces us [to leave the land], we will have to go. But Babu Saheb will help, and that is why all of us listen to him,” he said.
Voters across the Kosi-Seemanchal belt in the north, the Patna division in central and Magadh in southern Bihar indicated that caste remains a factor in deciding voting preferences even as Kumar remains popular across the board.
Calls for rising above caste do not appear to have many takers except among some educated voters, even as the RJD has been wooing Kushwaha and Keori votes beyond its traditional M-Y combination. The JD(U) also hopes to attract Kushwaha votes along with smaller Dalit groups and other poorer sections. The BJP continues to retain its hold among upper castes and some Dalit sections.
Abdul Qadir, a retired Magadh University professor, said the 2025 assembly election is again not a class contest as in cities like Delhi, but about caste. “The election is being fought on caste lines, assembly seat-wise, with no apparent wave for any coalition. When this happens, caste combinations play an important role in deciding the winner. I see that happening in Bihar even though Nitish Kumar continues to be popular among the masses and RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav is popular among Yadav and Muslim youth,” he said.
Qadir said the RJD-led alliance won 20 of the 26 assembly seats in Magadh in the 2020 polls because of the continued support of the dominant Yadavs and Muslims against the BJP. He added that there was a vote transfer of the labour class votes of the Left parties, especially the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). “The NDA is trying to break this caste combination through pre-poll sops to women and deprived sections,” Qadir said.
