Bihar election results 2015: Mandal 2.0 trumps Kamandal 2.0

NEW DELHI: Caste crossed swords with Hindutva in the grudge election of Bihar.
If the saffron duo of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah hit a shrill note with their "crackers in Pakistan", "beef-buchadkhana" and "Muslim quota" comments, RJD chief and Nitish Kumar's principal campaigner, Lalu Prasad, raised fears of "dismantling of OBC reservation" and declared the election a "forward versus backward" war.

The tone was crass, the pitch high, and the hostile rhetoric rang through the length and breadth of Bihar during the month-long campaign.

It appeared the classic Mandal vs Kamandal clash, the bid to raise the communal temperature to overcome the OBC camp's forceful attempt at caste mobilization which got a fillip with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's call for review of Mandal reservations.

Ultimately, if 'Brand Modi' fell flat in what BJP assumed would be a fertile ground for the saffron mascot's "aspirational" call, it was because Bihari voters had a positive view of Nitish's record on governance-development-graft front.

Nitish's 'Naya Bihar' neutralized Modi's "progress" bait, stripping the saffron outreach of an important strand on which Hindutva appeal has thrived upon in recent years. That Lalu's risky "Hindus too eat beef" statement failed to help the BJP points to the phenomenon.

Traditionally, 'socialist' regimes have been vulnerable on the governance front and BJP has tried it successfully against Congress in MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. It was also the saffron pitch in UP and Bihar in Lok Sabha polls. Except that in Bihar, it found a match in Nitish.

For political watchers, insertion of governance in the report card of Mandalites is a watershed which has taken Mandal to the next level, like Hindutva forces have done by bringing "good governance" into their manifesto.

In essence, Bihar 2015 was 'Mandal 2.0 vs Kamandal 2.0'.

The 'OBC vs Hindutva' battle, which reached its climax in the Mandal-Babri clash of the 1990s, unfolded in all its glory in Bihar, but has mutated in many more ways. Besides governance, Hindutva forces have beefed up their ranks with social diversity. Unlike in the past, when BJP was identified with upper castes and roped in OBCs and Dalits through religious appeal, it now has a string of leaders with Mandal hue, making Dalit and backward outreach easier.

The party was additionally banking on divisions among OBCs, with the possibility of Nitish's alliance with Lalu raising fears of "return of Yadav raj" among the 'most backwards'.

In the final analysis, Nitish's governance record played a key role in making Lalu's OBC offensive to succeed.