Patna, Aug. 13: Chief minister Nitish Kumar has decided to celebrate the 65th Independence Day with the Mahadalits in the state. It is, probably, for the first time that a chief minister will celebrate the national festival in such a fashion.

Nitish has not taken the decision all of a sudden. It is a well-calculated move, apparently aimed at expanding Nitish’s support base among the Mahadalits who account for almost 14 per cent of the state’s population. The government has already identified as many as 1,200 Mahadalit tolas (settlements) in and around the capital for Nitish’s visit on August 15.

While the chief minister will visit select tolas and make an elderly member of the settlement hoist the Tricolour, the district magistrate and other senior officials have been asked to visit the other tolas and celebrate the occasion in similar fashion.

“It will be a rare honour for the population languishing at the lowest rung of society. It will win their hearts,” remarked party vice president Shivadhar Paswan, also a Dalit leader.

The chief minister and other officials will also explain to the people the ways to utilise the Right to Service Act, the implementation of which Nitish will announce on August 15.

“The move is a part of Nitish’s sustained efforts to first cut into Ram Vilas Paswan’s votebank and then keep on working out to maintain the hold on the acquired support base,” remarked a senior JD(U) leader.

The senior leader’s explanations appears quite apt as one of the first steps that Nitish took after acquiring the state’s reigns in November 2005 was to coin the word Mahadalit and incorporate all the Dalit castes, except Paswans, in the Mahadalit forum.

He went on to heap largess on the Mahadalits which led Ram Vilas Paswan accuse Nitish of “dividing” the Dalits.

The move, however, paid huge dividends to Nitish. Aided with the Mahadalits and extremely backward castes (EBCs) that he had created after segregating them from the larger Mandal block of the other backward castes (OBCs), the NDA won 206 seats in the last Assembly polls. Paswan, meanwhile, lost his stronghold of Hajipur in 2009 Lok Sabha polls and all his relatives, including brother, Pashupati Nath Paras and two sons-in-law, lost the polls in the seats reserved for Dalits in 2010 polls.

Lalu and Paswan have neither of their relatives in any House of the country.

Observers believe Nitish’s I-Day move will not only consolidate his support base but also expose his opponent’s “failure” to think of effective measures to win back the lost grounds.