BJP plays on Narendra Modi’s caste to woo Nitish Kumar’s EBCs

PATNA: In the home state of Lalu Prasad politics these days is mainly fought between Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and the BJP.

The friends turned foes — who together ended the rule of Lalu’s Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar in 2005 — are now vying hard to woo the extremely backward castes (EBCs), a potent vote bank that has so far supported Nitish Kumar.

The BJP leadership in the state is now projecting its prime minister candidate Narendra Modi as an EBC person to win over this sizeable population. “We have leaders from EBC like Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Uma Bharati and Kalyan Singh. Even Narendra Modi is from EBC although he (Modi) himself has nothing to do with caste-based politics,” senior BJP leader and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi told ET.

“Every time the BJP was part of the government, the EBCs have their got their due,” he said. When the Karpoori Thakur’s government that came to power in 1977 gave EBCs quota in government jobs in Bihar for the first time, BJP leader Kailashpati Mishra was the finance minister, Modi said. Under the NDA rule in which BJP was an equal partner, EBCs got reservation in panchayat and civic bodies, he added.

Nitish Kumar, too, seems to target the BJP more than any other rivals in his public addresses. On Thursday, the chief minister told a gathering that there were forces that sought to foment tension in the society for reaping political dividends. Although he did not name any party, it was clear that he was targeting BJP, which had launched a scathing attack on the JD(U) after the blasts at a Narendra Modi rally in Patna.

Sushil Kumar Modi denied the charge. “We have not said anything which would help polarise the voters on religious lines. But yes, the CM has a lot to answer on the Patna serial blasts,” he told ET.