At least six MPs from Bihar are likely to make it to the Union Cabinet as Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes oath for the third straight term on Sunday. Of these six MPs, four are from NDA partners JD(U), LJP and HAM, while two are senior BJP leaders – Giriraj Singh and Nityananda Rai, both of whom held cabinet berths in Modi 2.0 as well.
The list of names reflects PM Modi’s fine caste balance in a state that has given the party 30 seats this Lok Sabha election.
The list of probable ministers includes Rajiv Ranjan Singh aka Lalan Singh, a Bhumihar leader and ex-national president of the JD(U). Next comes Ram Nath Thakur, son of Karpuri Thakur who is believed to be Bihar’s champion of socialist justice and was posthumously conferred the Bharat Ratna last year. Karpuri Thakur was the undisputed leader of the marginalised and the fountainhead of Bihar’s OBC politics, who reformed the socialist politics and culture to become the voice of Dalits and the backward communities in the state. He was also the backbone of the socialist movement in the state.
The list also includes Chirag Paswan, chief of the LJP (Ram Vilas). The son of the late Ram Vilas Paswan, Chirag Paswan is now an accepted leader of the Paswans with absolute control over five seats.
The last of the allies in this probable list is Jitin Ram Majhi, the chief of HAM and former chief minister of the state. This seems to be another important milestone for Manjhi’s Mushahar community, which is among the lowest of the low in the caste hierarchy and account for around 2% of Bihar’s voters.
Bihar’s Caste-Calculus
Talking to News18, a senior BJP leader from Bihar said the party not only accommodated the allies, but addressed the caste-politics in Bihar. “The names that you are seeing on the list, who are expected to get cabinet berths, have their own caste-equations with the party. Bihar has been a state which votes on caste lines. And it did not change,” the senior BJP leader said.
“The INDIA bloc’s campaign mentioning caste census and the alleged caste discrimination in politics impacted the voters. We have got good numbers in Bihar, but due to the same caste equations we faced a drubbing in Uttar Pradesh. So bringing the fine balance among the castes seems to be more important now than it used to be earlier,” he added.
The caste and sub-caste communities need to see how they are represented in the new cabinet, he further said.
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