Rahul’s pro-OBC pitch leaves upper caste Congress leaders uneasy in Magadh region

Gaya: In the 2020 assembly elections, Congress contested five general seats, including Aurangabad, Tekari, Gaya Town, Wazirganj, Hisua and Warisaliganj, in the Magadh division.

On all these five seats, Congress fielded upper caste candidates.The five seats were divided between two dominant upper castes in the 3:2 ratio. The strike rate of the party was much lower than alliance partners RJD and CPI-ML. Of the five general seats it contested, the party won two (Aurangabad and Hisua) and lost three. The Left party registered a 100% strike rate as it won both Ghosi and Arwal seats. Ghosi win was significant as it was regarded as the fiefdom of Jagdish Sharma.Things have changed a lot within the Congress in the last five years. In a major strategic shift, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has taken a distinctly pro-OBC stand with emphasis on caste census and poor representation of OBCs, EBCs in the decision making positions.On account of changed position of the Congress, the upper caste Congress ticket aspirants feel uncomfortable and this was also felt during meets preparatory to the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ where some of them appeared dismayed.

The yatra got better traction in areas dominated by the OBCs thereby strengthening the pro-OBC lobby within the Congress, feel observers.According to Ali Hussain, principal of a Gaya-based college, politics is a game of numbers and as such no party can prosper without taking into account the arithmetical realities. Hussain, who has been teaching political science, said in Bihar, politics per se has gone OBC-dalit centric and even BJP has re calibrated its strategy along those lines.Vijai Kumar Mithu, a senior Congress leader of Magadh division and former member of the All India Congress Committee, said Congress all along has accommodated all sections in its fold and comprehensive representation of different section commensurate with their numbers was in the party’s larger interests.In order to be seen walking the talk, Congress has been promoting leaders like Chandrika Yadav, Santosh Kushwaha, Naina Devi, Priye Ranjan, Kailash Pal and Shweta Yadav etc.

In 2020, both Congress and BJP-HAM(S) fielded same caste candidates in Aurangabad, Tekari, Wazirganj, Hisua and Warisaliganj. Party insiders believe that the strategy did not yield the desired result and as such things may be different this time.The resignation of Arun Kumar Prasad from the Congress is also being seen in the context of party’s changing social profile where the wings of upper caste leaders are likely to be sufficiently clipped. Prasad told this newspaper that he resigned from the Congress to join the Jan Suraaj as he found it ideologically superior to the Congress.Content state:Source editing