Patna, Sept. 29: Ironical as it may sound, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad - the star campaigners of the grand alliance - are firing at the BJP using ammunition provided by RSS sarsanghachalak Mohan Bhagwat.
Bhagwat's remarks that the reservation policy should be reviewed, made during an interview to the RSS weeklies Organiser and Panchajanya, have been seized by the two stalwarts of the backward class movement to "expose" the BJP's commitment, or lack of it, to the weaker sections enjoying the benefits of reservation.
At Raghopur - which Lalu's son Tejaswi is a contestant - on Sunday and at Pirpainti and Gopalpur today, Lalu built the theme of his campaign speech around Bhagwat's remarks. "The RSS-BJP is out to snatch the benefits that the Constitution has guaranteed to the backward classes. They can't dare do this as long as Lalu is alive," Lalu said, asserting, "It is the battle between backwards versus forwards."
Nitish, on the fourth day of his campaigning in Warsaligang, Sheikhpura and Barbigha today, repeatedly referred to Bhagwat's remarks and cautioned the weaker sections against the RSS-BJP's "designs".
The BJP's main worry is that Bhagwat's contentious remarks could queer the pitch for its discourse on the "record" number of Dalit and OBC candidates it has selected.
Of the 153 tickets the BJP has distributed, 65 were handed out to upper caste contestants, with Rajputs getting the bulk (30), while 88 went to those from the OBCs, the extremely backward classes and Dalits.
Of these, the biggest gainers were the Yadavs - as many as 22 Yadavs have got tickets so far.
BJP president Amit Shah has crafted the Yadav outreach to unsettle the RJD's Muslim-Yadav vote bank. BJP sources claimed that a large section of Yadav youths, "nurturing aspirations to a better life than that offered by the RJD", looked at the Narendra Modi-led BJP as an alternative.
Bhagwat is not naïve. So why did he make the statement that he did?
Insiders cited two possible reasons. The "old guard" in Bihar's RSS-BJP said Bhagwat was "gravely upset" at Narendra Modi-Amit Shah's strategy to encourage the emergence of "new forces (or the backward forces)", sideline the old ones and create a new brand of politics identified with the Modi-Shah combination more than the conventional RSS-BJP.
In a conversation with The Telegraph, Chandra Mohan Rai, a six-term MLA who was denied a ticket by the party from his Chanpatia pocket-borough in West Champaran, echoed Bhagwat's "anxiety".
"Bhagwat ji is quite right that the reservation policy should be reviewed. We have been saying it all along," Rai - an upper caste Bhumihar - said. "As part of the design to sideline the traditional leadership committed to the philosophy of the RSS-BJP, Sushil Modi (BJP's face in Bihar) has been encouraging his cronies in the party. We are aghast that leaders who were committed to the RSS-BJP since the '60s and '70s have been shown the door this time. There is some conspiracy at the top level which the RSS chief must have sensed."
Sushil Modi - now believed to be in the good books of the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combine - is the villain in the eyes of almost all the leaders - mainly the old guard: Dilmani Devi (nephew-in-law of BJP patriarch Kailash Pati Mishra), Sukhda Pandey, the party's old Brahmin face in Buxar and sitting MLA, and Vikram Kunwar, the MLA from Raghunathpur. All have been denied tickets.
"I guess Sushil Modi is trying to create a new brand of leaders not too committed to the RSS philosophy of nationalism and simplicity," said a sitting MLA who has been denied a ticket.
Other insiders in the RSS-BJP said Bhagwat might have timed his comments on reservation to "test the waters". "If the BJP-led NDA loses, it will be a setback to the Modi-Shah combination. In that event, the RSS might compel Modi-Shah to toe its line rather than build their own brand of politics," a top RSS ideologue said.
