Bihar elections: Nitish Kumar tries to turn Lalu Yadav’s MY base against RJD in Bihar

New Delhi: For the past 30 years, the biggest strength of RJD in Bihar has been the MY factor. Together Muslims (17%) and Yadavs (14%) form a big chunk of voters in the state. This MY has been intact with Lalu’s party and that can explain 15 years of RJD’s rule till 2005.
In later years Nitish outdid this equation with his next level of social engineering of taking along MBC and Maha Dalits together. It seems that before the 2020 assembly polls, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is trying to hit the core MY vote of the RJD.

In the last three months, a number of RJD leaders including former and current legislators have joined JD (U). Among these leaders seven are from MY community. Most of these leaders are strong leaders of their respective regions.

On Thursday three RJD MLAs joined JD(U). Among them was Chandrika Rai, father in law of Tej Pratap Yadav and former minister of the state. Another leader was Jaivardhan Yadav. Jaivardhan is the grandson of former Congress leader Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, who was once the biggest Yadav leader of Bihar.

The family still commands respect among the community and has a base in the central Bihar region. Faraj Fatimi is the son of former RJD leader Ali Ashraf Fatimi. In July former RJD leader Vijendra Yadav joined JD (U).

Vijendra was a former MLA from Sandesh. With JD(U) planning to field Vijendra Yadav against RJD this time, the battle would be tougher for RJD. “The Lok Sabha results of 2019 are a clear indication that MY equation is breaking away from RJD.

The party couldn’t win a single seat in even MY dominated regions,” JD(U) spokesperson Rajeev Ranjan told ET. “However leaders of all communities are joining JD(U) and it is not only MY community.” Chandrika Rai, who joined JD(U) on Thursday says that Nitish’s social engineering is far stronger than the social equation of RJD.