Last Grasp of the Mandal Messiahs

The electoral roll revision in poll-bound Bihar had sparked a narrative war over the state of democracy, citizenship and the people.

- SAJJAN KUMAR

Predictably, at a time when demography is intensely weaponized all around the country, political opponents are trading barbs over it. There is talk of the alleged death of democracy, notwithstanding the Supreme Court's refusal to stay the process.

Amid this bitter debate dominated by Lutyens' elites and mofussil YouTubers, secular messiahs and Hindutva votaries, the opposition and the ruling party, one needs to delineate the most tangible stakeholders—Bihar and the Biharis—who now stand at a crossroads.

Bihar has been ruled by two post-Mandal ruling families from Other Backward Classes—Lalu Yadav along with Rabri Devi/Tejaswi Yadav and Nitish Kumar—since 1990. In the same period, while neighboring Uttar Pradesh saw multiple stints of chief ministers like Mayawati, Ram Prakash Gupta, Rajnath Singh and Yogi Adityanath, Bihar remained true to the spirit of the Mandal discourse, exhibiting the political preponderance of intermediate castes. Therefore, the dynamics between Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav have been more about intra-backward-caste faultlines rather than ideological or programmatic divergences, barring during the first tenure of the former.

Hence, the shared legacy of the two satraps and absolute dominance of OBCs brings Bihar closer to the southern states, where the prospect of an upper caste member becoming chief minister is quite remote. This democratic reversal of power configuration in Bihar will be the enduring legacy of the two leaders who are in the twilight of their political careers.