Bihar Politics: Assembly elections are to be held in Bihar in October-November. Before this, Rahul Gandhi has started the exercise of giving a new lease of life to the Congress by playing the Dalit card in Bihar politics. This has alerted all the parties. Know how important the Dalit card is in Bihar.
Bihar Politics: Whether as the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha or as a Congress MP on the road, a new form of Rahul Gandhi is visible. Rahul will be seen talking about the Constitution, the rights of Dalits given in it and Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar everywhere. This is part of Rahul Gandhi’s exercise, in which he is trying to connect Dalit voters with the Congress again. Due to this, he has also been talking about caste census everywhere. Along with this, there have been claims of pressure from Congress behind the caste survey conducted by Nitish Kumar’s government in Bihar, which was a partner in the government with Nitish Kumar’s JDU at the time of the survey. The first test of this exercise of Rahul Gandhi is Bihar, where assembly elections (Bihar Assembly Election 2025) are going to be held in October-November. Dalit voters have special importance in Bihar politics. This is the reason why Rahul Gandhi reached Darbhanga on Thursday (May 15) to meet Dalit students despite all the obstacles and after reaching Patna, he watched the film ‘Phule’ based on Dalit social reformers Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule. The importance of this tour for Rahul can be gauged in such a way that he met Dalit students in Ambedkar hostel despite all the opposition from the administration in Darbhanga. Two FIRs have also been registered against him for this. Let us tell you in 5 points how important Dalit voters are in Bihar and why the elections here are going to prove to be a test for Rahul Gandhi-
- Dalit voters constitute 19 percent of Bihar’s population
Bihar’s politics has always revolved around Dalit and Mahadalit vote banks. There are about 19 percent Dalit voters in Bihar. The state’s Dalit vote bank has so far been influenced by LJP (Ram Vilas Paswan), Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM, CPI (ML). Apart from this, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JDU and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD have also been a part of it. Nitish Kumar has also found new equations by playing the Mahadalit card among this Dalit vote bank. Before the rise of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar, Dalit voters used to be in the Congress’s share. Rahul Gandhi’s exercise is to return this love of Dalit voters to the Congress, the hope of which has increased after the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. 2. 40 assembly seats are reserved in the state
Out of 243 seats in Bihar assembly, 40 seats are reserved. Out of these, Dalit Scheduled Caste candidates contest on 38 seats and Scheduled Tribe candidates contest on 2 seats. Congress has been getting the support of Muslim voters in Bihar, which it is expecting this time too. If Congress gets the support of Dalit voters due to Rahul Gandhi’s efforts, then due to Dalit-Muslim equation, Congress can do the miracle which has been keeping away from it for the last several decades.
- How is Rahul Gandhi trying in Bihar?
Rahul Gandhi has visited Bihar 4 times in the last 5 months. On these visits, he has been continuously accusing BJP of trying to snatch the rights of Dalits and calling Nitish Kumar a partner of BJP in this. Along with this, he has also been talking about giving rights to Dalits through caste census. Earlier in ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ also, Rahul Gandhi has been continuously raising the issue of Dalits. To woo Dalits in the state, on Rahul Gandhi’s behest, Congress has removed a strong leader like Akhilesh Prasad Singh and made Dalit leader Rajesh Kumar the state president, while Sushil Pasi has been appointed as the co-in-charge of Bihar.
- Dalit focus Rahul Gandhi is raising three demands
Rahul Gandhi has been raising three demands to woo Dalit voters to his camp, the first of which is to conduct caste census in the country. After the Modi government announced caste census, Rahul has tried to take credit for it by loudly calling it the result of Congress’ pressure. The second demand is to ensure funding under the government’s SC/ST sub-plan scheme and the third demand is to implement reservation in private institutions as well. Let us tell you that SC/ST sub-plan fund is a fixed part of the budget for the socio-economic development of Dalits in every state’s plan. Rahul Gandhi says that Dalits are not getting this fund.
- If Congress rises, Nitish will suffer a direct loss
The separation between Congress and Dalit voters in Bihar started after the rise of Nitish Kumar’s JDU. In such a situation, it is believed that if Dalit voters join Congress again, Nitish Kumar will suffer a direct loss. In the NDA alliance, JDU’s status in Bihar is higher than BJP. This means that if Nitish Kumar’s party goes down, then it will be BJP’s loss. This math can be understood from the following figures-
- In Bihar elections 1990, Congress got 24.78% votes.
- In Bihar elections 1995, Congress got 16.30% votes.
- In Bihar elections 2000, Congress got only 11.06% votes.
- In Bihar elections 2005, Congress’s fort collapsed with 6.09% votes.
- In Bihar elections 2010, Congress tried to rise with 8.37% votes.
- In Bihar elections 2015, Congress got only 6.7% votes.
- In Bihar elections 2020, Congress again got 9.48% by joining RJD.
Courtesy : Kuldeep Panwar, Hindi News