The JD(U)’s parting of ways with the BJP now appears setting Bihar up for a triangular contest, which may change the social engineering of the principle players in the coming days. While Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar appears to have taken cue from his Orissa counterpart Naveen Patnaik by leading the state in an alliance government in similar fashion, his party is confident that he could spread his support base across the state by exploiting his “name, work and image”. The BJP smarting under “betrayal” has signalled playing the OBC card by stressing saffron hawk Narendra Modi’s social background.
At the outset, Mr Kumar’s grand social engineering of upper caste, extremely backward caste and mahadalit is set for serious permutations and combinations with the JD(U)’s principle focus now being the Muslim support base by playing their saviour card for being the key opponent of the rise of Mr Modi at the national level. Mr Kumar’s secular turn after seven years of leading the NDA alliance in the state will now also be pitted against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s core Muslim constituency, said a senior RJD leader. Though Mr Kumar had limited success to making inroads in the Yadav vote-bank of the RJD, the Muslims had seen him till last elections suspiciously for riding on the back of the BJP.
But the most daunting challenge for Mr Kumar is likely to come from the upper caste vote base, which was on the forefront to throw the long Lalu Yadav-led RJD reign in the state. Not only the upper caste is numerically strong, they are credited to be opinion makers in the state, which could start reflecting in the “hype” around Mr Kumar’s image in the state.
“The memory of lawless state under Mr Yadav-led RJD is still fresh, which Mr Kumar had exploited in previous elections. But barring a few, most of the RJD leaders are now close confidante of Mr Kumar. This is a critical aspect, which the BJP will look to exploit,” said a senior Bihar BJP leader.