On the heels of the caste survey and hike in reservations for Other Backward Classes, Extremely Backward Classes and Scheduled Tribes, the Janata Dal (United) government will host a Bhim Sansad on Sunday in Patna, to reach out to the SC community. SC leaders in the party have claimed that over one lakh people from the community would participate in the mega meeting set to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
The Patna district administration has made elaborate traffic arrangements to ensure the event — to be held at Patna’s veterinary ground near the airport — does not inconvenience the public. “Over a lakh people from all across the State will be participating in the Bhim Sansad tomorrow which is to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar,” Mr. Kumar’s Cabinet colleague and close confidante Ashok Choudhary said.
Mr. Choudhary, along with party leaders and Ministers from the SC community like Ratnesh Sada and Sunil Kumar, have been touring different districts of the State for several weeks, to mobilise people for the Bhim Sansad. The veterinary ground has been set up with a huge canopy and platform for the event; large cut-outs of party leaders, including Mr. Kumar, are in place to welcome people to the venue. Full-page advertisements regarding the meeting have already appeared in the local editions of dailies here.
The latest caste survey revealed that the SCs (19.6518%), OBCs (27.1286%) and EBCs (36.0148%) together account for over 82% of the State’s population. Hence, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, the ruling party wants to train its focus on this segment to get an electoral advantage.
Earlier, the party had also launched programmes like Karpoori pe Charcha (discussion on Karpoori), in honour of the late Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur — a former Chief Minister who had hailed from the EBC community and was known for championing the cause of the backward classes.
On October 10, JD(U) had flagged off Bhim Sansad Raths (Bhim Parliament Chariots) to different districts of the State to invite people to this Patna meeting. Mr. Choudhary, Mr. Sunil Kumar and Mr. Sada had done their bit to mobilise public for the event as well. “The idea behind the Bhim Sansad is to work towards equality in society, which our government has been doing for a long with its slogan ‘Development with justice’,” said Mr. Choudhary, adding, “In our Bhim Sansad, we’re meeting people across the State to tell them to join hands together.”
Another senior leader of JD(U), preferring anonymity, said, “Now the caste survey report has shown SCs and EBCs as big social groups and we’ve started reaching out to them. A similar meeting for EBCs could also be on the cards.”
Meanwhile, Opposition BJP leaders claimed that the event was a “ploy to placate a particular caste group for electoral dividends”. “Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his party JD(U) have always been in power by dividing castes into sub-castes and other caste categories. When Mr. Kumar came to power in 2005, he had clubbed all scheduled castes into Mahadalit category while leaving Paswans out of it. However, later, purely for political reasons, he included Paswans too into Mahadalit group,” State BJP leader Bhim Singh said.
“Such meetings like Bhim Sansad and others, JD(U) has been organising to woo the SCs and EBCs in their favour in the upcoming Lok Saba poll and State Assembly elections in 2025 but people of these communities know it very well that this government of Nitish Kumar has done nothing for them except dividing them into several groups and sub-groups,” said the former Minister.
