Patna: The RJD-led grand alliance recently announced a seat-sharing pact for 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. While the Congress is upset over being denied some of the key seats, including two Mithilanchal seats, the RJD seems to have gone back to its old Muslim-Yadav (M-Y) formula to regain lost ground.
“Our fight is to save the Constitution and democracy. Rumours are being spread about the grand alliance, but we will jointly uproot the NDA in the coming elections,” Tejashwi Yadav said.
The party has fielded eight Yadav and three Muslim candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The RJD has given tickets to veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav, Lalu Yadav’s eldest daughter Misa Bharti and Tej Pratap Yadav’s estranged father-in-law Chandrika Yadav. Vibha Devi, wife of rape convict and party MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav, has also been fielded from Nawada.
Among the Muslim face, Hina Shahab, wife of criminal-turned-politician and convicted leader Mohammad Shahabuddin, has been given a ticket from Siwan seat. The party fielded its Muslim leader and former finance minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui from Darbhanga, the seat which Kirti Azad was eyeing. Mr Azad has recently joined the Congress.
Besides other grand alliance partners Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), Vikasheel Insan Party (VIP) and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) have been entrusted with the task of garnering EBC, OBC and mahadalit votes.
Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP and Mukesh Sahani’s VIP form a prominent social group within the non-Yadav OBCs in the state. Mr Kushwaha with around 10 per cent voter base of his Koeri community is considered a strong player to join the grand alliance. Mr Sahani’s Nishad community accounts for 14 per cent of the state population.
Sources claim that in the last two years, Mr Sahani has been organising rallies across Bihar to unite Nishad, Mallah and Nonia communities which come under the extremely backward caste (EBC).
According to political analysts here, the Muslim-Yadav combination which was floated by RJD chief Lalu Yadav in the 1990s has now transformed into Muslim, Yadav, mahadalit, Nishad, and Koeri after Jitan Ram Manjhi, Upendra Kushwaha and Mukesh Sahani entered into grand alliance fold.
The M-Y combination forms about 30 per cent vote share (Muslims 16 per cent and Yadav 14 per cent). Mr Manjhi has a major stake in the Mushahar community, a sub-caste among dalits in Bihar. The community has a population of around 40 lakh and was classified among mahadalits in 2007 by chief minister Nitish Kumar.
The RJD-led grand alliance has managed to cobble up unity with five political parties, including the Congress. The RJD is contesting elections on 20 seats, the Congress has settled for nine, Mr Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) five. The two smaller regional parties Hindustani Awam Morcha and Vikasheel Insan Parties have been given three seats to contest 2019 general elections. The RJD has left one seat from its own quota for the CPI-ML veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav who had recently formed Loktantrik Janata Dal. He will also be contesting the Lok Sabha election on RJD symbol from the Yadav-dominated Madhepura seat.
