The OG 'Jan Nayak': Why Karpoori Thakur is the flavour of Bihar elections 2025

NEW DELHI: In Bihar’s charged predetermination season, everyone wants to beryllium a 'Jan Nayak'.When Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the NDA’s run earlier this period by visiting Karpoori Gram, the autochthonal colony of socialist icon Karpoori Thakur, and paying floral tribute astatine his memorial, it was much than a symbolic gesture.

It was the archetypal wide motion that this predetermination would beryllium fought arsenic overmuch implicit bequest arsenic leadership. On the different hand, arsenic Rahul Gandhi remained missing successful Bihar successful the earlier signifier of campaign, Congress compensated by flooding societal media with clips of his 'Voter Adhikar Yatra,' projecting him arsenic the caller Jan Nayak who walks among the people. Similarly, RJD declared Tejashwi Yadav, who was named the CM look of the Mahagathbandha, the "nayak" of Bihar.Suddenly, Jan Nayak, erstwhile a word reserved for a humble antheral who cycled from colony to village, has go Bihar’s astir contested governmental title. And arsenic parties scramble to assertion it, the spotlight has swung backmost to the antheral who archetypal embodied it -- Karpoori Thakur, the OG Jan Nayak whose beingness and authorities inactive specify Bihar's motivation imagination.The Bharat Ratna conferred connected Thakur past twelvemonth lone amplified that revival, but arsenic Uday Chandra, writer and prof astatine Georgetown University, Qatar, points out, "Karpoori Thakur ne'er genuinely near Bihar’s consciousness.

He represents thing deeper -- a motivation compass successful a authorities wherever authorities has go transactional."Watch the afloat interrogation here

The antheral who rode a bicycle into historyKarpoori Thakur's beingness reads similar a fable, the emergence of a antheral from the margins who became the look of a movement. Born successful 1924 successful Bihar's Samastipur territory to the Nai (barber) community, which presently makes up hardly 1.6% of the state’s population, Thakur's travel was thing but ordinary.

"He was among Bihar’s astir singular post-independence leaders — a socialist who roseate from humble origins to go main curate twice," says Chandra.

"He campaigned doorway to door, colony to village, connected a humble bicycle."

Thakur's authorities fused Gandhian simplicity with Lohiaite egalitarianism. As main minister, his landmark determination successful 1978 to instrumentality occupation reservations for backward classes, much than a decennary earlier the Mandal Commission recommendations, remains 1 of the boldest assertions of societal justness successful modern India. It was besides 1 of the astir controversial.

The determination triggered protests from guardant castes, but for millions of backward and highly backward classes (EBCs), it was the archetypal clip the authorities acknowledged their assertion to dignity and opportunity."He was known arsenic Jan Nayak due to the fact that radical saw successful him idiosyncratic who lived their struggles," Chandra explains. The root storyTo recognize Bihar’s 2025 elections, 1 indispensable archetypal recognize Karpoori Thakur's ideological DNA. His epoch birthed a caller grammar of power, wherever caste was not hidden beneath euphemisms but spoken of arsenic authorities of representation."Karpoori Thakur is the root constituent of Bihar’s OBC oregon peasant assertion," says Chandra. "The Lohiaite socialist contented -- from Karpoori to Lalu to Nitish -- challenged the dominance of a tiny coterie of 'forward castes' and recast the region’s authorities astir societal justice."Today, erstwhile each confederation invokes the vocabulary of empowerment, it is Thakur’s connection they borrow. His imaginativeness of 'samajik nyay' (social justice) forms the bedrock connected which Bihar’s individuality authorities rests.

The Mahagathbandhan, led by RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, sees him arsenic their ideological ancestor. The NDA, led by Nitish Kumar and the BJP, positions him arsenic a shared OBC icon -- a fig who transcends caste boundaries."Invoking Thakur contiguous lets parties reconnect with that societal justness narrative, adjacent if its ethical borderline has dulled," Chandra observes. "For the NDA, it is simply a mode to tribunal non-Yadav OBCs and look inclusive.

For the Mahagathbandhan, it’s astir reclaiming authenticity, tracing their lineage straight from the societal justness movements of the 1970s."In short, everyone wants a portion of Karpoori.Symbolism implicit numbersThe irony is that Thakur himself came from a assemblage excessively numerically insignificant to signifier a ballot bank. The Nais, oregon barbers, represent conscionable implicit 1.6% of Bihar’s population. Yet his governmental afterlife has grown acold beyond that statistic."In Bihar, symbolism goes farther than specified numbers," Chandra says. "Thakur’s entreaty transcended his ain sub-caste. He came to correspond a authorities of dignity for each backward classes, particularly the Extremely Backward Castes (EBC)."

It was, successful fact, nether Thakur’s authorities successful the precocious 1970s that the important favoritism betwixt OBCs and EBCs was institutionalised, a argumentation that continues to signifier Bihar’s electoral calculus today.

EBCs, estimated astatine astir 36% of the state’s population, are present considered the astir decisive voting bloc.By invoking Thakur, some alliances are hoping to pat into that motivation and affectional reservoir. The NDA projects him arsenic an inclusive fig successful its Hindu OBC outreach, portion the Mahagathbandhan paints him arsenic the ideological ancestor of their Lohiaite socialism.As Chandra puts it, "His ain assemblage matters little than the wide societal conjugation helium came to embody."Between dignity and developmentYet nostalgia unsocial doesn't triumph elections. Bihar contiguous is simply a acold outcry from the Bihar of Thakur's era. Migration, unemployment, and the decay of nationalist acquisition predominate the concerns of young voters.So, does invoking Thakur resonate beyond rhetoric?"Material aspirations person grown, but they are not abstracted from the authorities of dignity for astir Biharis," Chandra argues. "For galore young voters, Thakur's sanction inactive evokes honesty and equality -- qualities mostly absent from today’s transactional politics."

But helium adds a warning: "If parties simply usage his representation without addressing unemployment, migration, and the illness of nationalist education, the symbolism volition ringing hollow. The situation is to link his ideals of accidental and dignity for the marginalized with a credible improvement agenda."In essence, Karpoori Thakur tin lone instrumentality Bihar truthful far. Unless parties physique roads, literal and metaphorical, his bequest risks becoming a prop alternatively than a promise.Who owns the legacy?The contention to assertion the "OG Jan Nayak" mantle has go a defining subplot of Bihar predetermination 2025. Each of the large players, Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi Yadav, and the BJP, sees successful Karpoori Thakur a reflection of their ain governmental aspiration, albeit refracted done convenience. So who tin really assertion his legacy?"Nitish Kumar inherits Thakur’s EBC basal and pragmatic benignant of governance," Chandra notes adding, "But his shifting alliances person eroded his credibility.""Tejashwi Yadav channels the Lohiaite tone of societal justness and younker aspiration," helium continues, "but is burdened by the dynastic excesses that Thakur abhorred."As for the BJP, it seeks to fold Thakur into a broader Hindu OBC narrative, which sits uneasily with his secular and socialist ethos. "Perhaps the truest homage to Karpoori Thakur," Chandra says, "would beryllium to revive his motivation authorities of simplicity, integrity, and courageousness -- values present successful abbreviated proviso crossed the governmental spectrum."The motivation centre In a authorities agelong caricatured arsenic a theatre of caste arithmetic and powerfulness flips, Karpoori Thakur stands retired arsenic thing purer -- a reminder that authorities tin beryllium grounded successful ethics. His look connected predetermination posters is not conscionable nostalgia; it is simply a yearning for decency successful nationalist life.As the 2025 run intensifies and Bihar gets acceptable to ballot successful signifier 1 connected November 6, parties whitethorn proceed to combat implicit his legacy, each twisting his representation to acceptable their pitch. Yet, successful the eyes of galore voters, the OG Jan Nayak remains untouched -- the barber’s lad who dared to imagination of equality, the person who rode a bicycle alternatively of a motorcade, the main curate who refused to compromise his ideals for convenience.Nearly 4 decades aft his death, Karpoori Thakur whitethorn erstwhile again determine Bihar’s future, not done his vote, but done his vision.