To break the perception of being a party of Muslims and Yadavs, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Sunday roped in Karuna Sagar, a Bhumihar by caste, and a 1991 batch IPS officer from the Tamil Nadu cadre.
Muslims and Yadavs kept the RJD in power for 15 long years, but over the past few years, the party has been trying hard to change the public’s perception, and has given tickets to several upper caste leaders in the Assembly as well as for council polls.
Mr. Sagar retired from the post of Director General of Police (DGP), Welfare in Tamil Nadu in April 2023, and formally joined the RJD on Sunday in the presence of Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and several other senior leaders of the party including State president Jagdanand Singh.
Changing perceptions
The move to rope in Mr. Sagar is seen as an attempt to woo upper caste voters, who traditionally support the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is already in the eye of a storm over the premature release of gangster-turned-politician Anand Mohan, who is Rajput by caste. While Mr. Kumar made an attempt to woo the Rajput vote bank, the RJD is making an attempt to grab the Bhumihar vote bank. Being upper castes, Rajputs and Bhumihars have long been BJP voters, but now, the ruling Mahagathbandhan alliance is trying hard to dent this vote bank.
Mr. Yadav also stressed that the RJD is the party of “A to Z”, and would keep working to include all groups. “It is a wrong perception that RJD is the party of MY [Muslims and Yadavs]; we believe in A to Z. We want to go ahead by keeping people of all castes and communities. We have always given proper representation to people of all castes,” he insisted.
The RJD did not miss the opportunity to make Mr. Sagar’s induction a mega event, and invited most senior leaders of the party to be present, including national general secretary Shyam Rajak, former MLA Brishen Patel, and former Bihar Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary. Mokama MLA Neelam Devi — wife of gangster-turned-politician Anant Singh, a strong Bhumihar leader — was also present at the event, and was seated next to Mr. Sagar.
May get LS ticket
Mr. Sagar hails from Dhanaruwa block in Patna district but his Karm Bhumi is Jehanabad district where he has done a lot of social service in the education sector. He met RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav at his residence a few days ago, and the party is likely to make him its candidate in next year’s general election from the Jehanabad Lok Sabha constituency, where most voters belong to the Bhumihar, Rajput and Yadav communities
Mr. Sagar had played a significant role in effectively handling the situation created by Youtuber Manish Kashyap and others who spread fake news that Bihari migrant workers were being attacked in Tamil Nadu. Mr. Tejashwi Yadav had then urged Mr. Sagar to ensure that panic did not spread among the migrants due to the rumour mongerers.
Police-turned-politicians
This is not the first time that the RJD has put its trust in an IPS officer; in fact, Mr. Sagar is the third DG rank officer to join the party. Earlier, IPS officers Ashish Ranjan Sinha and Ashok Gupta had also joined the party and contested the election.
Also on Sunday, 12 IPS officers joined poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj campaign, just a few days after six IAS officers had joined. Out of the dozen police officers, two were from Union Public Service Commission and 10 were promoted from the Bihar Public Service Commission.
