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NEW DELHI: Election Commission is apt to denote the dates for the Bihar polls, which whitethorn beryllium conducted successful 2 phases, successful the archetypal week of October.The high-stakes showdown volition trial the governing NDA, led by CM Nitish Kumar, against a charged opposition, which is already successful conflict mode with Rahul Gandhi conducting a state-wide yatra against alleged ballot theft, and RJD neta Tejashwi present starring different focused connected unemployment and alleged corruption. This is Bihar's archetypal authorities canvass since Nitish government's landmark caste number successful 2023, which has ignited fierce debates connected societal justice, reservations and power-sharing. For NDA, the elections are a accidental to defy elector fatigue with a CM who has been astatine the helm for 2 decades now.
Caste information whitethorn substance request for sub-categories wrong OBCs
Bihar’s elections person mostly been fought on the responsibility lines of caste and the forthcoming circular is improbable to subordinate the pattern. The caste survey whitethorn person lone sharpened the conflict lines. Conducted nether Nitish’s watch, it revealed that Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) comprise 63% of the population, with Yadavs astatine 14%, EBCs astatine 36%, and others, specified arsenic Kushwahas and Kurmis, accounting for the rest. SCs comprise 19%, portion the precocious castes relationship for 15%. Many groups among Muslims, who person a stock of 17% successful the population, are categorised arsenic OBCs, but they mostly ballot on assemblage lines.
Armed with this data, govt hiked reservations from 50% to 65% for jobs and education, positive 10% for economically weaker sections. The move, expected to triumph implicit the numerically ascendant “backwards”, was stayed by Patna HC but helped Nitish further fortify his credentials arsenic a champion of OBCs. Centre’s astonishment motion to a nationalist caste census successful April 2025, announced by BJP-led government, has added caller substance to the fire.
Once wary of the demand, the Modi govt embraced it aft concluding that doing truthful would defang what had go the main plank of the absorption and forestall it from reversing the momentum for Hindu consolidation.The information could substance request for sub-categorisation wrong OBCs. Barring a crisp deviation from the humanities pattern, the elections are apt to beryllium shaped by the caste factor, and successful this respect the NDA does not look to beryllium particularly disadvantaged vis-àvis the rival operation if it manages to forestall the newcomer Jan Suraj from eating into its upper-caste votes.
