The BJP’s plans to play the caste card gainfully in Bihar’s caste-driven politics owing to Narendra Modi’s supposed backward caste descent got an unexpected foothold on Sunday when two former JD(U) MPs supported the state BJP’s emphatic call to project Mr Modi as the PM candidate.
In statements that would serve to give greater currency to the Gujarat BJP strongman’s extremely backward caste (EBC) credentials in Bihar, former JD(U) MPs Upendra Kushwaha and Arun Kumar said the BJP’s preparations for Modi’s projection as PM candidate was in “national interest”. The two leaders, known as Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s bitter critics, described the opposition to Mr Modi’s rise to the PM’s post as opposition to the political empowerment of the EBC communities.
“Those opposing the BJP decision on Modi are effectively opposing the rise of an extremely backward class leader,” both Mr Kushwaha and Arun Kumar, leaders of the five-month-old Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, were quoted as having said. Kushwaha, who quit his Rajya Sabha seat in January after making a series of attacks on Nitish Kumar, also said he had his “full support” for Modi becoming prime minister. Coming a day after the Bihar unit of the BJP passed a resolution asking the leadership to formally declare Modi as PM candidate, the two leaders’ statements gave the BJP an unexpectedly fresh stimulus. Mr Modi comes from the Ghanchi caste in Gujarat, seen as an equivalent of Teli in UP and Bihar. Despite Telis being listed as OBC in Bihar, the state BJP claims Mr Modi belongs to the EBCs.