Caste Census 2025: How Bihar becomes the zero ground for India’s new political arithmetic
The centre suddenly announced a caste census on April 30, which seemed to have put Bihar poll politics into turmoil. The move will force parties to restart their strategies six months before the General Assembly elections. Through this step, the BJP aims to uncover the caste advantages possessed by the Indian group led by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which built motivation on this issue, relying on Rahul Gandhi’s consistent advocacy for caste enumeration and the ongoing advocacy of Lalu Prasad-Prasad-Prasad-tejjashwi Yadav Yadav Yadav Yadav Yadav Yadav Yadav Yadav Yadav Yadav Yadav Yadav Yadav Yadav Yadav Yadav Yadav Yadav Duo.
RJD, Congress and left-wing Mahagathbandhan (Major League) broke into some assaults in the non-Yadav OBC, competed with the Kushwaha candidate and was in line with the VIP of Mukesh Sahani, a party with an influential presence in Kevat-Mallah Castes. Its alliance with CPI (ML) helped it attract Dalit voters in areas marked by a history of caste violence. Meanwhile, Jitan Ram Manjhi, the son of the late Ram Vilas Paswan and the leader of the Paswan-Dusadh community and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s two famous Dalits – Chirag Paswan and Mushhar-Manjhi communities, formed an alliance with BJP-JANATA DAL (UNICED) (UNICED) JD (U) (U) (U).
In the 2024 election, the opposition campaigned under the slogan of “Save the Constitution,” warning that the National Democratic League (NDA) would modify its demolition reservation if it crossed 400 seats.
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Although the BJP’s performance in Uttar Pradesh dropped the weight of the PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak), a movement led by Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, it managed to curb the losses in Bihar.
Crucial to the BJP, its Bihar unit has long supported the caste census. It supported the national Bihar Parliamentary resolution in February and 2021, and provided a unanimous resolution for the national caste census and joined a party-wide delegation that met with Prime Minister Modi in August 2021. Now back in the NDA, Nitish remains a key backward leader in the league, despite doubts about his health and political future.
Shortly after the union cabinet announced on April 30, RJD head Lalu Prasad issued a statement recalling that a portion of his party at the time promoted the caste enumeration in the 2001 census. “We asked again in 2011. Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav, until then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delayed parliament before that,” he said.
Both RJD and JD (U) now claim credibility for the 2023 Bihar caste survey. RJD was part of the ruling Mahagathbandhan when he was in power, while Nitish Kumar served as chief minister, overseeing.
AICC is the AICC of Bihar, Krishna Allavaru attributed to Rahul Gandhi’s insistence, forcing the Modi government’s hands. He noted that Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had written to the Prime Minister, suggesting a model based on the Congress-curated Telangana. Allavaru also called for the lifting of the 50% cap on Supreme Court bookings.
RJD’s poster in Bihar now says “bookings are over 55%”, accusing the centre of stalling the MGB government’s attempt to raise it to 65%.
Last June, the PATNA High Court defeated the state’s move to raise OBC bookings based on caste investigation data. A few days later, Nitish Kumar walked out of Mahagathbandhan and rejoined the NDA. Since then, RJD has repeatedly blamed NDA for failing to expand quotas.
The caste census is expected to trigger new demand to expand booking pupils. Anticipating this, RJD has been raising the court, and as the election approaches, it may be louder and louder.
The Bihar caste survey was notified on June 6, 2022, completed in August 2023, and released in October. The socio-economic report was released on November 7 and a relevant bill was submitted in Parliament on November 9. Under the premise of the 2024 election, politics has seen political adjustments under the influence of this data.
According to the Bihar caste survey, OBC accounts for 63.1% of the population: 36% of EBC, 14.3% of Yadavs, 3.5% of Kushwahas and 2.9% of Kurmis. Of the 14.6% of the castes planned, Ravidas and Paswan accounted for 5.3%.
Yadavs remains the core foundation of RJD, and Kurmis is back to Nitish Kumar. Kushwahas, who once stood in line with Nitish, is now actively recruiting by RJD. Among the Dalits, Ravidas/Mochi (Jatav in UP) lags behind political representatives.
Bihar leaders were anxious to get credit after the announcement of the news from the centre. BJP state president Dilip Jaiswal praised the Modi government, saying: “Now, the country can formulate policies for deprivation and utilization based on accurate statistics.” Although he admits it is easier said than done.
Political representation may become a controversial issue in Bihar, where constituencies are traditionally identified by caste (Madhepura) as “gope ka” (belonging to Yadavs) while Aurangabad is “Bihar of Bihar” (Rajput the) (Rajput the).
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As the caste census produces a difficult number, the demand for comparative political representation will rise. This could undermine existing social alliances and lead to a tectonic transformation of Bihar politics, where people often vote more, rather than vote.
There is nothing more annoying in caste wars on land ownership. Unless Yadavs, most OBC and Dalit communities have little land, which is still largely a privileged caste. The devil is as in the details as ever – these details can overturn the deeply rooted caste hierarchy.
Obviously, Bihar will be the basis for testing the caste census and its political challenges released.
