INDIA bloc's caste strategies give Left parties fresh hope in Bihar

After over three decades, Left parties are hopeful of entering the Lok Sabha from Bihar. The CPI, CPM and CPI-ML are in direct fight with NDA allies in five Lok Sabha constituencies, where they are contesting as INDIA bloc constituents.

It was in 1991 that CPI nominee Vijay Kumar Yadav had last won from the Nalanda Lok Sabha seat while CPI-ML candidate Rameshwar Prasad had won from Arrah seat once, in 1989.

In the ensuing elections, the CPI nominee Awadhesh Kumar Rai, a Yadav by caste and three-term MLA from Bachhwara assembly constituency, contested against Union minister Giriraj Singh from Begusarai and CPM nominee Sanjay Kumar faced Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) nominee Rajesh Verma in Khagaria.

Polling in these two constituencies was held in the third and fourth phases.

Caste combination

The CPI-ML is contesting from Arrah, Karakat and Nalanda constituencies, where polling will take place on June 1. In Arrah, CPI-ML nominee Sudama Prasad, a Kanu (Vaishya) by caste, is challenging former Union home secretary and incumbent Union minister RK Singh, who is a Rajput.

In Karakat, CPI-ML candidate Rajaram Singh Kushwaha is pitted against former Union minister and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) leader Upendra Kushwaha while in Nalanda, which is Nitish Kumar's home turf, CPI-ML nominee Sandip Sourabh, a Yadav, is challenging Janata Dal (U) nominee and three-term MP Kaushalendra Kumar.

The Left parties' hopes hinge on the crucial caste combination formed this time after an alliance forged with the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP).

Going by the caste statistics released by the Nitish Kumar-Tejashwi Yadav government last year, the INDIA bloc solidly commands the votes of Yadavs, who form 14 per cent of the population, and Muslims (18 per cent), besides a major segment of the Kushwahas (6 per cent) and Mallahs (fishermen community, 6 per cent).

Lalu’s masterstroke

RJD chief Lalu Prasad, known for his political acumen and social engineering, has strategically fielded three candidates of the Kushwaha (Koeris) community from his party. The Congress, CPM, CPI-ML and VIP have also fielded one candidate each from the Kushwaha caste. In all, the INDIA bloc has fielded seven candidates from this caste.

On the contrary, the BJP has not given tickets to any candidate from Kushwaha caste. The JD(U) has fielded three Kushwaha candidates while RLM chief Upendra Kushwaha is himself contesting from Karakat.

The Kushwaha politics played by Lalu Prasad has substantially debilitated the famous Luv-Kush (Kurmi-Kushwaha) combination nurtured by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the past 25 years. The move is reaping benefits, as the Kushwaha vote bank appears to be inclined towards the INDIA bloc.

Lalu has also roped in VIP chief Mukesh Sahani, who has a substantial support base among the fishermen community. As per the caste survey, the fishermen community comprising different sub-castes constitute around 6 per cent of the total population.

Left’s vote base

Besides the solid Muslim-Yadav vote bank of the RJD, the Left, especially the CPI-ML, has its vote base across all castes in central and southern parts of Bihar, which was the hotbed of armed Naxal movement that gripped the region between 1970s and 1990s.

The votes of the fishermen community and substantial section of Kushwahas have been added to brighten the chance of the CPI-ML nominees in Karakat and Arrah constituencies located between rivers Sone and Ganga.

In the 1995 elections, when Bihar was not bifurcated (to form Jharkhand), the CPI had won 26 seats, CPI-ML six seats while CPM and Marxist Coordination Committee (MCC) had won two seats each in the 324-member state assembly.

Continuous slide

But in 2000, their performance plummeted, with the CPI-ML bagging six seats, CPI five and CPM two seats. The slide continued thereafter.

In the February 2005 assembly elections after the creation of Jharkhand as a separate state, the CPI-ML bagged seven seats, CPI three and CPM one in the 243-member state assembly.

Subsequently, in the October 2005 assembly polls, the CPI-ML garnered five seats, CPI three and CPM one seat.

The performance of the Left parties was not encouraging in the 2010 and 2015 assembly elections either. In 2010, the CPI could win only one seat while in 2015 the CPI-ML won three seats.

Alliance boost

After the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the performance of the Left combine has improved due to its alliance with the RJD and the Congress.

In the 2020 assembly polls, the Left combine won 16 out of the 29 seats it jointly contested in alliance with the RJD and Congress in Bihar, as part of the Mahagathbandhan. The CPI-ML won 12 seats out of 19 it contested while the CPI and CPM won two seats each.

The RJD and CPI-ML grabbed five assembly seats out of the seven assembly segments of the Arrah Lok Sabha seat. The duo made a clean sweep in assembly segments falling under the Karakat and Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituencies, both of which the NDA has been winning since the 2009 parliamentary polls.

In 2019, BJP nominee RK Singh secured 5.66 lakh votes, defeating his CPI-ML rival Raju Yadav by a margin of over 1.47 lakh votes. The latter secured 4.19 lakh votes.

No split in votes

The Left leaders feel that the seat sharing has been done in a relatively more structured and systematic manner this time. "The basic idea behind seat-sharing was to ensure that one INDIA bloc candidate is fielded against one NDA candidate. This will help avoid a split of Opposition votes," claimed Ram Naresh Pandey, state secretary of the CPI.

Nonetheless, the organisational strength of the Congress is relatively weaker than the RJD and the Left parties, which remain in agitation mode round the year. It is mainly because the Congress has been playing second fiddle to the RJD since 1995, thereby leaving its workers more or less idle.

Frequent massacres and retaliatory killings of the 1970s and 1980s are things of the past now but the divide between haves and have-nots is still clear and the sentiments of the poor are directed against the landed gentry. At the same time, the fear factor of the CPI-ML still persists among the upper castes and some intermediary castes owning land.

The caste equation and ground situation provides a fair chance for the CPI-ML candidates in Karakat and Arrah. "The combined votes of RJD, CPI-ML, VIP and Congress will outnumber the votes of the BJP this time because it is a straight contest. But it has to be ensured that the anti-BJP votes are not divided like the last elections. The entire INDIA bloc votes stand united," claimed Santosh Sahar, a CPI-ML activist.

BJP’s nationalism card

To counter the anticipated polarisation of Extremely Backward Castes (EBC) and Dalits in favour of CPI-ML, the BJP is seeking votes on nationalism, popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and clean image of its candidate RK Singh in Arrah. The BJP also has the support of well-off sections of the society and activists of Ranbir Sena, an outfit of the landlords.

In Karakat, the prospects of both the RLM nominee Upendra Kushwaha and CPI-ML nominee Rajaram Singh have been hampered by the entry of a Bhojpuri film actor-cum-singer Pawan Singh into the fray.

Radical change

Lalu Prasad's Mandal politics has mitigated the divide between haves and have-nots. At the same time, the region, earlier described as the 'Flaming fields of Bihar', has undergone a radical change in its socio-economic and political profile. As wages are paid as per government rules, a section of landless labourers have purchased land.

There is a perceptible change in people's attitude towards each other as the huge loss of human lives in the past has taught them the lesson of ‘peaceful coexistence’ and settling for what is socially and legally prudent.