Bihar's Political Shift: How Old Rivals United Against BJP Threat

The main constituents of the alliance - the RJD, Congress, and the Left parties - have been political rivals in the state, even engineering an erosion in the mass base of the other.

In fact, the Left constituents were also not under one umbrella earlier, with the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) part of the Left Front, with some smaller constituents. The Indian People's Front (IPF) and the Marxist Coordination Committee (MCC) represented the political arms for what is now termed as Maoists or ultra-Left.

However, the Dipankar Bhattacharya-led Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) Liberation is different from the banned outfit with a similar name and takes part in elections, unlike the Maoist insurgents.

Bhattacharya party, though part of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, is not a part of the Left Front elsewhere. RJD, the principal constituent in Mahagathbandhan, was established by Tejashwi's father, Lalu Prasad Yadav, who first entered the Lok Sabha as part of the Janata alliance in 1977.

He was among the leaders who joined Jaiprakash Narain's movement and evolved during the anti-Emergency protests. He even served a stint in jail during the stir. In Bihar, he dethroned the Congress in 1990 and positioned himself as a non-elite leader of the masses, emphasising populist redistribution and identity politics.

During this period, he chose to ride the then Union government's decision to implement the Mandal Commission recommendation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation. He cried for social justice for backward classes and minorities and rose to prominence through a combative, caste-centred mobilisation, challenging the Congress's dominance in Bihar.

Through his mobilisation, he started eroding the base of the Communists, too, who enjoyed considerable following among the backward and the downtrodden. Lalu managed to get the support of the Yadavs, OBCs, and Muslims, who comprise roughly 14, 27, and 17 per cent of Bihar electors, respectively.

In 1990, undivided Bihar had 324 Assembly seats, of which the RJD won 122. Among the Left parties, the CPI won 23, CPI(M) in 6, while new entrants IPF won 7, and the MCC won only 2 seats.

Meanwhile, the Congress managed 71 seats, losing 125 in comparison to its earlier showing. Through the vicissitudes of time and politics, the Left and the Congress started waning in Bihar.

The Mahagathbandhan has given the constituents a hope for revival, where the RJD emerged as the largest party with 75 seats, while the Left cornered 16. This came from practical electoral realities and shifting political arithmetic that had led Lalu to set aside historical enmities and enter tactical alliances with Congress when it served mutual interests.

The rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a pan-India force, especially its electoral gains in Bihar and pragmatic political alliances, forced him to reorganise.

Earlier, RJD had helped the Congress at the Centre mainly through coalition-building, Parliamentary support, electoral mobilisation, strengthening the United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) legitimacy and vote arithmetic.

From 2004 onwards, Lalu formally joined the Congress-led UPA, lending support and accepting ministerial berths, with the RJD supremo serving as Union Railway Minister. The equation gave the coalition the required numbers in Parliament and a visible regional partner in Bihar.

Through the coalition, the RJD managed to obtain policy attention for Bihar, along with certain concessions, transfers of central schemes, among other objectives.

Beyond votes, Lalu's participation signalled a wider secular-opposition front, helping Congress frame the national contest as a centre-versus-BJP bipolarity and attracting other regional parties into cooperation, strengthening the anti-BJP narrative at the national level.

Since then, from the INDIA Bloc at the Centre to the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, where opposition to the BJP and the need for a broad so-called secular front outweighed old rivalries, reconciliations in the run-up to recent polls exemplify this political convergence.

- IANS