Now political observers are astonished at this result and wondering what contributed to such a grand victory of Nitish Kumar. Many of them ascribing the developmental works of Nitish government for this result and in the same breath, they say that people of Bihar has arisen beyond castes and chose for development. Is it really true that Caste has ceased to be a factor in Bihar elections? A close watch on what happened in Bihar gives some other picture.

All political parties chose their candidates on the basis of the castes. The leaders of these parties could not rise above the caste calculation. Then how can we believe that people rose above it only because of the development works undertaken by the Nitish government? It is worth mentioning that Nitish himself has lost his election in 2004 from Barh Lok Sabha constituency, even after giving it (Barh) an NTPC Thermal Power Station, paving the way for the development of his home constituency. People of Barh then voted not on the basis of the developmental work of Nitish, but on the basis of caste, and he had to face the defeat from the very constituency, which he nursed well as its representative.

So the development alone cannot be a factor to the resounding victory of Nitish led NDA in the caste divided Bihar. At least development cannot become a reason for people rising above the caste. Then how came this grand success of Nitish? The reason is not very difficult to find out. Anyone who is watching the caste drama of Bihar can understand the reason behind it. It is true that a section of people rose above their castes and voted for Nitish. But that was not due to development factor, but that was due to fear factor. The fear was the return of Lalu. That fear was keeping people of Bihar haunted after the victory of Lalu Ram Vilas combine in the by-election of 18 assembly seats just after the Lok Sabha elections of 2009.

In 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Lalu had lost one of the two seats he contested. Even Ram Vilas Paswan had lost his seat of Hajipur. But within a couple of months, their combination won 10 of the 18 seats of Legislative Assembly, where by-elections took place. Majority of those seats were earlier held by NDA. That election was a turning point for Nitish. People of Bihar felt threatened by the comeback of Lalu once again. The question arises as why people of Bihar are so afraid of the return of Lalu. The reason is very simple. Lalu Raj had become the synonym of jungle raj. Interestingly Ram Vilas Paswan coined this term for the rule of Lalu Rabri. Though, Lalu used to win the elections with the help of weaker sections of society, but he never cared for them. In fact he used the criminalisation of society as his political weapon. He knew that the weaker sections of society are supporting him because of their suppression at the hands of the mighty. So as a policy he promoted such kind of suppression, rather attending to the falling situation of law and order. This led ultimate divorce with the poor sections of society with Lalu Yadav. Now he was left with the support of his own castes. People of other OBCs deserted him in favor of Nitish.

When society is criminalized, no one is safe. Those, who have got more money and more wealth, are more vulnerable. They would prefer to vote for their safety and security, rather than their caste people. The caste apathy or caste preference loses it sting during the crisis. That is why a considerable number of people chose Nitish only to prevent Lalu from staging his comeback. In other words, it was not just the development plank, which forced a considerable number of people to vote for Nitish, but it was the fear factor, which played the important role.

Even caste factors were in favor of Nitish. Lalu and Nitish- both belong to powerful peasantry castes, which are part of OBCs. Lalu had antagonized the weaker sections of OBCs, but Nitish Kumar made every effort to keep them in good stead. He gave 20 percent reservations the Most Backward Classes of people in local bodies elections. He also gave 16 percent quota to Scheduled Castes in the same bodies. In this manner he consolidated his hold over MBCs and SCs. Some trading communities, who are OBCs but not the part of MBCs, were more concerned about their safety, rather than their quota in local bodies. They had another reason to support Nitish led NDA. The reason was Sushil Kumar Modi, who is assumed to be an OBC leader belonging to the trading communities. In this way, Nitish Kumar has consolidated his hold over all the OBCs other than Yadavas, who continued to have preference for Lalu. To counter Ram Vilas Paswan, Nitish played the Mahadalit cards. All the castes belonging to the SCs other than Paswans were declared as Mahadalit. Nitish even took care of the Muslim OBCs. Muslim OBCs are mostly MBCs. As MBCs, they were also beneficiary of quota in the local bodies. Nitish also initiated some development works among the Muslim weavers, who are OBCs.

In this way, Nitish Kumar played his caste card very smartly. He has carefully nurtured a strong social support based for himself, but did not made it a political issue during the campaign. He kept on harping on the development plank. He did not have to make offensive statements against Upper Caste people like Lalu to garner the support of OBCs and other weaker sections of the society. In this way, he also earned the goodwill of upper castes people. This resulted into his continued acceptability among upper castes people as well, who thought the return of Lalu to be against their interest. The fear of Lalu’s comeback kept them in Nitish block.

In this way Nitish Kumar has created a history in Bihar by winning the elections with unprecedented success. Since, he was harping more on development, people think it is the miracle of development. No one can deny, that development did play a part, but it was the smart caste card of Nitish combined with the fear factor of weaker sections and wealthy class, which made Lalu, Ram Vilas and Congress lick the dust. (IPA Service)