Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) nominated its low-profile party leader Hari Sahni, who comes from the Extremely Backward Class (EBC) community, as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Bihar Legislative Council. Mr. Sahni, the first-time BJP MLC, was nominated on Sunday by Samrat Choudhary, who was appointed as the State party president in March 2023. Mr. Sahni was nominated to the Legislative Council by the BJP in 2022.
In a bid to woo the EBC, which constitutes about 30% of the State’s electorate and are considered to have a floating vote base, the BJP nominated Mr. Sahni, an influential caste leader from Darbhanga district, as the LoP in the State Legislative Council. Mr. Sahni comes from the Mallah (boatman) caste, a sub-group of the Nishad community of EBC which has a sizable presence in several Lok Sabha constituencies of north Bihar like Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Madhubani and others.
In November 2005, when Nitish Kumar became the Chief Minister he carved out 113 castes as EBC from the most marginalised Other Backward Class (OBC) in Bihar which the former Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad commanded to remain in power. The influential EBCs include Bind, Mallah, Nishad, Chandravanshi, Sunar, Kumhar, Tatwa, Teli, Kahar, Kewat, Nonia and others who are considered Nitish Kumar’s party JD(U)’s most loyal vote bank.
Earlier in March 2023, the BJP had appointed the leader of the Opposition in the State legislative council Samrat Choudhary as state party president. Mr. Choudhary comes from the OBC community and currently is seen as a potential chief ministerial candidate of the BJP if the party wins the 2025 assembly poll. Mr. Choudhary comes from the Kushwaha caste which constitutes over 7% of the State population and is considered as the biggest OBC block after Yadavs in the state. Yadavs constitute about 14% of the State population.
Political analysts in the State observed that with the appointment of OBC and EBC party leaders on key positions in Bihar, the BJP “wants to send a message across political spectrum of the State that it has its own base among the EBC and OBC communities.
The appointments have also led to speculation that the BJP is looking to send a message to smaller parties — allies and potential allies — that it can build its own base among the backward castes in Bihar. “The message, perhaps, is directed to the VIP leader Mukesh Sahni who is yet to form an alliance with the BJP for an upcoming 2024 parliamentary poll”, said political analyst Ajay Kumar. The party sources said that Mr. Mukesh, leader of Vikashil Insaan Party, had demanded as many as 11 seats for the Lok Sabha election out of the total 40 seats in Bihar and the seat-sharing talks with the BJP had failed.
“I congratulate Hari Sahni for his elevation as the LoP in the State Legislative Council, but he should also remember that he got the position because of the political awareness created by me among the Mallah and Nishad community,” Mr. Mukesh told media persons on Monday while denying that he was in talks with the BJP over seat sharing.
“Whats wrong if our party nominates an EBC leader as the Opposition leader in the Upper House? Unlike other parties, our party gives representation to every section of the society and Hari Sahni has been a very methodical and low-profile party leader from Bahadurganj of Darbhanga district”, a senior BJP leader, preferring anonymity, told The Hindu.
However, ruling grand alliance leaders countered. “The BJP has been taking such moves to woo backward and extremely backward votes in its favour but they will be utterly failed as EBC and OBC have been voting for the Mahagathbandhan alliance since last several years.
“In 2020 assembly poll too, the BJP had taken such political moves but they did not yield any electoral benefit to them,” RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari said.
