At a tea shop, Ramnandan Rai, a die-hard Lalu supporter, finds himself pushed to the wall by the spirited argument of Jagdev Bhagat to stress how Nitish achieved in five years what Lalu could not in 15 years.

An agitated Rai hits back and says: “Ye topi jo pehne ho woh Lalu ka hi den hai. Lalu ne hi tumko chalna sikhaya to aaj kud rahe ho. (The cap you are wearing is because of Lalu. Lalu taught you to walk and now you are jumping).”

“Ye topi Lalu ne nahi, Nitish ne diya. Ye baat sahi hai ki Lalu ne chalna sikhaya lekin uske baad kuch nahi diya. (This cap is not Lalu’s but Nitish’s gift. However, it is right that Lalu taught us to walk but gave nothing after it),” retorts Bhagat.

Jagdev Bhagat, who belongs to an extremely backward caste, confronting Rai, a member of the powerful backward Yadav community reflects the social and political transformation Bihar has undergone over the past five years under Nitish Kumar. It is this empowerment of the deprived among the powerful OBC bogey, the extremely backwards that has armed Nitish to rip through his political foe, RJD chief Lalu Prasad. In the last Assembly polls, Nitish rode the rage of the upper castes to dethrone Lalu.

Five years later, he is banking on the assertion of a large group of backwards who had lived in the shadow of the powerful Yadavs during 15 years of Lalu-Rabri rule.

If Nitish trounces Lalu decisively, then he will effectively replace him as a powerful leader of the backward stream. Behind the clash between “development” and “destruction” is hidden, Nitish’s intention to get himself endorsed as a genuine leader of the backward stream represented by the Ram Manohar Lohia and Karpoori Thakur school and get rid of the charge that he was a member of the Sri Krishna Sinha stream — the first chief minister of Bihar, who continues to form the symbol of upper caste hegemony in the state.

Nitish had taken to silent social engineering to emerge as a backward leader immediately after he came to power in November 2005. He began by reserving 20 per cent seats in panchayats for the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs). Comprising over 100 castes and about 30 per cent of the population, the fruits of Mandalisation had not percolated down to them. EBC members now head panchayats even in upper caste-dominated areas due to reservation. Nitish also wooed backwards among Muslims, who comprise 85 per cent of the community’s population, by devising schemes for their welfare. Next was the idea of Mahadalits or the deprived Scheduled Castes. Nitish tried to win over a lion’s share of the Dalits minus Paswans by putting them under the deprived category and announced several schemes for their uplift.

Behind all this was hidden Nitish’s aim to emerge as a leader of a large share of the population minus the upper castes that Lalu used to command in his heydays. “I think he has succeeded in replacing Lalu as the tallest leader of the backward stream in the state and this election will prove it,” said, JD (U) MP Shivanand Tiwari, who has remained close to both Lalu and Nitish.

Travelling across the state, one clearly notices that his efforts were yielding results. If the Yadavs are militantly backing Lalu, the EBCs are equally determined to see Nitish back in power. Ramlakhan Bhagat, the husband of an EBC mukhiya in Chhapra, said: “Nitishji has empowered us. My wife would never have become a mukhiya without the reservation extended by him.”

Bhagat, known to be strong leader of the EBCs in this area, had sided with Lalu in the last Lok Sabha polls. “Laluji had done a lot for Chhapra as the railway minister, so I supported him. But this time it is the question of the Nitish government,” he says.

Reservation in panchayats had not gone down well with the upper castes that had backed Nitish to oust Lalu. Upper castes, who had managed to hold onto their hegemony at the grassroots level by getting elected to local bodies even during the Lalu regime saw it as an attack to marginalise them further.

It spilled out when a commission constituted by the government on land reforms, recommended granting rights to sharecroppers. It was strongly opposed by the upper caste leaders in both the JD (U) and BJP. Though Nitish clarified that he was not implementing the recommendation, upper castes felt it bared his real intentions to push them to the fringes. The move led to a rebellion by JD (U) leaders, MP Lallan Singh and former MP Prabhunath Singh. While Lallan is backing the Congress, Prabhunath, who owes his political rise on the anti-Lalu plank, has joined the RJD.

“This election is not about development and pro or anti-incumbency. It is about social polarisation. Upper castes in large numbers are rejecting both Lalu and Nitish and voting for the Congress. Congress will hold the key to government formation,” said Singh, who is certain of a hung verdict.

The condition of these two leaders showcases the dilemma confronting the upper castes on the ground. “We are caught between these backward leaders. Congress is an option for us but we know that it is still too weak to stand on its own feet in the state,” says Jagdish Sharma of Bihta, pointing out that despite their social marginalisation, they have reaped the economic benefits of development ushered under Nitish.