Why Tejashwi Yadav is laying the caste net wider

India Today

20-05-2025

(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated May 26, 2025)It was a sweltering Saturday in Patna on May 3, but the heat wasn't just from the rising mercury in the summer. At the Miller High School Ground in the centre of the city, Tejashwi Yadav was whipping up some serious passion of his own. The Rashtriya Janata Dal leader was addressing a rally—the 'Ati-Pichhda Jagao, Tejashwi Sarkar Banao (Wake Up the EBCs, Elect a Tejashwi government)' rally organised by his party's EBC (Extremely Backward Classes) cell. 'No EBC community has prospered, while Nitish has flourished,' Tejashwi thundered, mounting a salvo against his once grand ally—Janata Dal (United) supremo and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. He promised them jobs and safety; freedom from crimes and criminals too. 'Jo apraadh karega, gareebon ka shoshan karega, apamanit karega, usko main jail bhijwaunga (Whoever commits a crime, exploits or insults the poor, I will send them to jail),' he vowed, positioning himself in just that single sentence as a bulwark against injustice as well as indignity.advertisementJust four days earlier, on April 29, Tejashwi had been addressing an altogether different assembly—of the economically forward Vaishya or trader community. The occasion was Bhama Shah Jayanti, and the state RJD office had organised a function to honour the 16th-century merchant hero. 'Your enterprise has driven Bihar's growth,' he told them, 'yet the current regime never recognised your contributions.' It was a pivot for a party that has seldom shown any affection for the merchant community. Tejashwi reminded the gathering how, during his brief tenure as deputy chief minister between August 2022 and January 2024, he had brought in 'Rs 50,000 crore in fresh investment' and delivered 'half a million jobs'. The ground laid thus, Tejashwi got down to business. 'If you walk one step with me, I will walk four with you.' The audience expressed its approval, with a giant burst of applause.advertisementTejashwi's two speeches, delivered in quick succession, are of a piece with a strategy forged out of hard electoral arithmetic. In the 2020 Bihar assembly election, the mahagathbandhan, or the grand alliance, a coalition of the RJD, Congress and the Left parties, had won 110 seats in the 243-member House. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), comprising chiefly of the BJP and the JD(U), eked out a victory with 125 seats, despite a vote share that was just 0.03 percentage points higher than that of the rival formation. While the actual difference in votes was just 11,150, the real margin, as it turned out, lay in the unaligned and disaffected segments that neither bloc fully commanded. And it is into this untapped reservoir that Tejashwi is now casting his net.GETTING HIS EBC RIGHTThe EBCs are 113 marginalised castes that constitute more than 36 per cent of Bihar's population, according to the latest caste-based survey. Given their fragmented nature, they have never had the social clout of dominant OBC castes like the Yadavs—who account for 14 per cent of the state's population—yet exercise outsize influence at the hustings thanks to their numbers. They have been an inalienable part of Nitish's support base, ever since the nine-time chief minister granted them 20 per cent reservations in panchayat bodies back in 2006. Tejashwi is now trying to chip away at that support base, and attempting to forge a bond with voters who almost never pick the RJD as first choice in Bihar's political power play. His current efforts may not consolidate every EBC vote, but they could be enough to tilt the scales.advertisement
This will not be the first time that Tejashwi has tried to broaden his outreach, but while the efforts have resulted in impressive tallies, they have failed to crystallise into decisive victories. In 2020, the RJD had emerged as the single largest party, securing 75 seats and a 23.1 per cent vote share, thanks largely to a job-centric campaign that delivered nearly 39 per cent of the vote in the 144 constituencies the party had contested. Yet, it was not enough in the absence of fresh constituencies to compensate for incremental losses among the EBCs, Dalits and women, and the RJD-led Grand Alliance fell short of forming the government by a mere 12 seats. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the RJD amassed 9.6 million votes—the highest for any party in Bihar—yet they translated into just four parliamentary seats. The NDA, on the other hand, maintained a lead in 176 of the state's 243 assembly segments.advertisementWith the assembly polls now due in six months, Tejashwi is determined not merely to reprise the campaign themes of 2020, but also to extend his party's outreach well beyond the customary 'M-Y' coalition of Muslims (17 per cent of the population) and Yadavs. Together, the M-Y are a formidable bloc, but still insufficient if the NDA succeeds in peeling away chunks of the remaining voters. Hence the new, amplified refrain: shared welfare, enhanced security and unflinching accountability.SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODYFor the EBCs, Tejashwi is holding out the lure of targeted employment schemes, local infrastructure projects and community-led policing initiatives to safeguard women. To Dalits, he is offering land title regularisation and scholarships; to urban entrepreneurs, simplified licensing and relief from punitive 'GST raids'. Women's collectives are being promised not just security and empowerment but also a monthly social security stipend of Rs 2,500. Of course, Tejashwi's polyphonic appeal could well boomerang. By courting these new constituents, he risks alienating his loyal supporters. His core M-Y vote bank could resent overtures to erstwhile rivals; the NDA is already portraying him as a political opportunist. And while onerous compliances and sporadic enforcement crackdowns may have bred discontent among Bihar's traders, they may hold back, driven by scepticism after years of U-turns by regional parties.advertisement
Yet, the momentum is clearly shifting. Bihar's caste survey has reignited the public debate on representation. Promises to field more backward class candidates than ever in 2025 have sparked enthusiasm in communities long accustomed to tokenism. There is also the generational shift, something the 35-year-old Tejashwi brings up regularly against the 73-year-old Nitish. In speech after speech, he refers to the incumbent as 'tiredretired, even'.Tejashwi's youthful brio also comes with a strategic nod to dynasty and his father Lalu Prasad's contributions. The RJD patriarch remains the patron saint of Bihar's social justice politics, but his rule is also identified as a 'jangal raj' that deprived the state of growth opportunities. Aware of the contradiction, Tejashwi takes pains to paint Lalu's legacy as one of empowerment, not of chaos, and himself as someone who can carry it forward while marrying it with 21st century imperatives.advertisement
WILL IT WORK?In a state where electoral fortunes have swung on margins as slim as a few thousand votes, even modest gains among EBCs, traders or women could prove decisive. But Tejashwi's strategy demands near-flawless execution. For that, he'll first have to get the allies in line. Tejashwi's big challenge will be to persuade the Congress to cap its ticket count at around 50 seats. In 2020, the party fought in 70 seats but managed only 19 wins (even the CPI-ML had a better strike rate—12 wins in 19 seats contested). The RJD chief also has to accommodate two new parties: Mukesh Sahani's Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), which won four of the 13 seats it contested as an NDA ally in 2020, and Pashupati Paras's faction of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).Meanwhile, there are fresh ripples from another quarter—Prashant Kishor's newly formed Jan Suraj party. Riding a wave of disaffection with traditional party hierarchies, Kishor's party promises clean governance, community-driven development and a break from entrenched dynastic politics. Partymen claim it will get 5-7 per cent of the Muslim vote in key districts, depriving the RJD—which considers Muslim voters as part of its natural constituency—of the very margins it needs to convert popular support into legislative strength. This election, Tejashwi will have his hands full, as he must reckon with the old NDA and the new rival.Subscribe to India Today MagazineMust Watch