Bihar: RJD Offer of Support to Nitish Kumar on Caste Census Heats up Political Scene

Patna: Amid the biting cold wave sweeping across Bihar, the political situation looks set to heat up with the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) offering its support to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for conducting a caste-based census and asked him to get rid of those opposing it.

Days after Kumar expressed dismay over his ally Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) reluctance to attend the much-awaited all- party meeting to support the conduct of a caste-based census, RJD state president Jagdanand Singh on Thursday said his party would support Kumar for the sake of the state. He appealed to the Chief Minister to go ahead on the caste-based census as RJD was with him on the issue.

“Rajya hit mein RJD ko Nitish Kumar kabul hai” (in the interest of the state, RJD will back Nitish Kumar) said Singh, who considered close to RJD chief Lalu Prasad, while referring to the caste-based census.

This is probably the first time in over a year that RJD has clearly hinted that it has no problem in joining hands with Kumar and was ready to accept his leadership.

Without naming BJP, Singh said Kumar should dismiss those cabinet colleagues who are against the caste-based census. Several among Kumar’s cabinet colleagues recently expressed their opposition to caste-based census.

Singh said that there was no need for Kumar to bow before the BJP on caste-based census and demand of special category status to Bihar. “The Opposition Mahagathbandhan will support Kumar if there is any political trouble for him. We will stand with him”, he added.

Meanwhile, political observers here said it was too early to conclude anything but RJD’s latest move was surely a step closer to Kumar. In 2015, both RJD and Kumar's Janata Dal (United) had joined hands and contested Assembly. They won and formed the government, but it did not lasted as Kumar dumped RJD in July 2017 and once again joined hands with BJP and formed the government.

Soon after Singh announced RJD’s offer to support Kumar, the ruling JD-U has welcomed the move. Upendra Kushwaha,  president of JD(U) national parliamentary board, said the move to support Kumar on caste-based census was a “positive” sign. ”I welcome RJD’s words of support. All parties should support Kumar on this issue”, he said.

Early this week, Kumar said that all parties in Bihar, except the BJP, had made known their stance on conducting a caste based census in the state. “But we are still awaiting a response from BJP to decide on an all-party meeting”, he said.

In saying this publicly, Kumar exposed he fact that BJP was not keen on a caste-based census.

Differences have cropped up from time to time among the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over conducting a caste-based census, as well as on a fresh demand for special category status to the state.

 A day after B P Yadav, state minister for planning and implementation, who is also a senior JD-U leader and is considered close to Kumar, strongly demanded special category status to Bihar from NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar, Bihar deputy chief minister Renu Kumari, a senior BJP leader, questioned the relevance of such a demand and claimed that the Central government led by Narendra Modi had been giving more funds to the state than to anyspecial category state.

Kumar had last week announced that the state government would conduct a caste-based census from its own resources.

According to some JD-U leaders, ally BJP is not keen and comfortable with conducting a caste-based census and in the last few months, several BJP leaders have publicly opposed such a census, even terming the demand as “useless.”

Kumar’s stance in favour of a caste-based census is widely seen as a result of the Opposition RJD’s aggressive stand against the Centre's decision to not go in for such an exercise. Both JD-U and RJD have been 'pro-Mandal' and the caste-based census is an old demand reiterated by both parties.

Nitish Kumar, who belongs to the agrarian OBC (Other Backward Classes) community – Kurmi --  has said that a caste-based census exercise should at least be conducted once, adding that it would help to know the number of people belonging to different poor and marginalised castes in various regions. The last caste census was conducted in 1931 before India’s independence from the British.

The CM recalled that the Bihar Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous resolution for conducting a caste-based census in February 2019 and in February 2020 consecutively, and had sent it to the Centre. Notably, the BJP and JD-U had supported the resolution calling for a caste-based census in 2020. However, the BJP does not seem too keen on it now.