Patna: When most political parties are wooing the Dalits as a potential vote bank, some have started to play the balancing game.

LJP chief and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan had on Tuesday demanded 15 per cent quota for "poor upper castes".

"The poor among the upper castes deserve quota," he said, asserting that the NDA government at the Centre was committed to protect the rights of the Dalits.

Paswan, however, is not the only one demanding quota for upper castes.

On Monday, JDU minister Jai Kumar Singh also made a similar demand stressing that quota for upper castes is "a must".

Earlier, when the RJD announced the candidature of Manoj Kumar Jha as a Rajya Sabha candidate, the party used the occasion to send a message to the upper castes.

"We want to send a message that we are not just a Muslim-Yadav party and fight for the poor irrespective of their caste or creed," said Ram Chandra Purbey.

The nation has already witnessed two violent bandhs - one sponsored by Dalit outfits and the other by the "upper castes".

RLSP chief and Union minister Upendra Kushwaha was roughed up on April 10 and group clashes were reported in Ara and Muzaffarpur. Yet the RLSP chose to play down its criticism saying that most upper castes were not opposed to reservation for the Dalits.

In Bihar, unlike in UP, upper castes are numerically smaller - estimated to be 10 to 12 per cent of the population. They were traditionally Congress voters.

However, after the Mandalisation by and large they have switched their loyalty to the BJP.

Till date they have largely remained with the party despite bids by the RJD and the JDU to win them over. The RJD in 2000 talked about 5 per cent reservation for the upper castes and the JDU formed an upper caste commission.

The importance of upper castes in Bihar has risen after the splintering of social justice forces as the number of claimants - RJD, LJP, JDU, RLSP and others - increased.

The BJP has also done social engineering and managed to tag in a chunk of Economically Backward Classes votes, which enabled it to get 25 per cent of the popular votes despite contesting about two-third of the seats in the 2015 Assembly polls.

"Despite limitation of numbers, the upper castes still wield substantial influence - especially in the urban areas and if one has to stop the BJP's growth in Bihar, efforts to win them over is a must," said a senior RJD leader recalling that in the Rajya Sabha biennial polls from Bihar all political parties fielded upper caste candidates.

"The demand for upper caste quota is going to get louder as the polls come near," he added.