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Bihar Elections 2020: Muslim-Yadav Equation still Relevant

The caste factor has always been the strategy of all the parties and has always been there, hovering around this factor. The leaders of the Grand Alliance and the ruling NDA in Bihar claimed that the development is the main key in the upcoming Assembly elections.

The candidates were always selected by the political parties based on the strength of a caste in a particular constituency.

And, talking about the electorate profile of Bihar, this theory has made the Muslim-Yadav (MY) equation very admissible in the state. Since then it had played a very important role during the 15-year rule of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad.

Looking at the electorate profile of Bihar This theory has made the Muslim-Yadav (MY) equation very relevant in the state, looking at the electorate profile of Bihar. During the (RDJ) Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav’s 15-year rule it played a very significant role and the current Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has always looked over to ita[art from Koeri and Kurmi, the KK equation.

16 percent of the voters are Yadav and 17 percent are Muslims in the state. The 110 seats are dominated by these two communities. Hence, the Janata Dal-United gave 19 seats to the Yadav candidates and 11 to Muslims in the 2020 Assembly poll.

In every election, both Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar has always depended upon these candidates, since these two communities are considered as the “Kingmakers” of every election.

Since Lalu Prasad belongs to the same community, the Yadav’s are its traditional vote bank, claims the RJD. And also, he maintains the image of a secular leader, and because of that the Muslims are always there to support him, he claims.

Even the current Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also has an image of a secular leader, it reflects through his “Topi and Tika” remark, was Topi (a cap) belongs to the Muslims and the Tika to the Hindu community.

A Patna based political analyst Saroj Yadav told that “His association with the BJP forced the Muslims to a certain extent to make a distance from him. Still, JD-U cannot ignore Muslims. It is dependent on individual Muslim candidates.”

The (JD-U) Janata Dal-United had given seats to 12 Yadav candidates and 11 of them won in the election, in the 2015 Assembly elections.

48 seats were given to the Yadav candidates by the RJD and 42 of them managed to win.

Even the BJP had betted on 22 candidates, but the Bharatiya Janata Party was not so successful compared to the Janata Dal-United and RJD as only six of its candidates won the election.

In the 2020 Assembly elections, the Janata Dal-United gave 19 seats to the Yadav candidates, only 42 candidates so far and 20 of them are from the Yadav community was announced by the RJD.

There are 243 Assembly constituencies and 61 Yadav MLAs were elected in 2015.

The Janata Dal-United has given tickets to 11 candidates in the upcoming election, as far as the Muslim candidates are concerned.

Currently, in the Bihar Assembly, there are 24 Muslim MLAs and of them, 11 belong to the RJD. Five to JD-U, six to Congress and one each to CPI (ML) and BJP.

Saroj Yadav told “Muslims have been the traditional voters of the Congress party before 1990. The Bhagalpur Hindu-Muslim riots of 1989 had changed the perception of the Muslim community. They have looked at Lalu Prasad as an alternate leader in Bihar. They had turned ‘kingmaker’ for Lalu Prasad when he got the majority in 1990 and formed the government in Bihar,”

“In 2015, the anti-incumbency factor, law and order situation played a role apart from a group of Muslims and Yadav that were not pleased with the Lalu Prasad regime. They looked at Nitish Kumar as an alternative,”

He also added that: “The MY equation also worked in 2015, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad contested the election as an alliance partner and succeeded,”

 

with IANSinput