Narendra Modi and Amit Shah

Patna, Oct. 22: BJP president Amit Shah has followed in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s steps — of aggressively wooing the backward classes — by appointing Rajya Sabha MP Bhupender Yadav (45) as the party’s Bihar in-charge.

The idea is to grab the votes of the numerically strong Yadavs. Bhupender replaces Dharmendra Pradhan in what is being described as Shah’s first move enter the backward class bastion of Bihar’s two major leaders — Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad — who have joined hands to stop the BJP’s “mission” to conquer Bihar after wins in Haryana and Maharastra earlier this week.

Simultaneously, Nitish, too, embarked on a Jansampark Yatra (people contact march) from West Champaran — Mahatma Gandhi’s karmabhoomi (land where one worked) and Nitish’s favourite venue for launching political campaigns — from November 13. “Nitish’s yatra — that will effectively launch his campaign for the Assembly polls next year — will conclude on November 29,” JDU spokesman Sanjay Singh said.

It is pertinent to point out here that Narendra Modi had harped on his backward class origins during his campaign in Champaran. By referring to Dwarka — associated with Lord Krishna — and going soft on Lalu at almost all election rallies he addressed in Bihar, he assiduously tried to woo the Yadavs — the single largest backward caste and also the core strength of the RJD boss.

By replacing Dharmendra, a leader from Odisha with little caste appeal in Bihar, with Bhupender, a Yadav from the Hindi heartland of Rajasthan, Shah has stepped up efforts to widen the BJP’s space among the backward classes, traditionally with the socialist forces Lalu and Nitish represent.

Drubbed in the Lok Sabha polls, Lalu and Nitish buried their 20-year-old hostility to forge a grand secular alliance involving the RJD, JDU and Congress. This alliance reversed the Lok Sabha poll trend in the August by-elections by winning six Assembly seats against the BJP’s four. Apparently, conscious of the united challenge from Lalu and Nitish, Shah has decided to nip it in the bud through Bhupender Yadav.

State BJP chief Mangal Pandey and leader of opposition in the state Assembly Nandkishore Yadav have welcomed Bhupender Yadav in the state.

But the RJD’s national spokesman, Manoj Jha, said: “Whatever tactics the BJP adopts, it is bound to fail in Bihar. The secular forces have sensed the danger of the Sangh Parivar’s divisive and anti-poor politics. The RJD-JDU-Congress alliance reversed the electoral trend within three months of the Lok Sabha polls. The grand alliance will henceforth keep on trouncing the BJP in the elections to follow”.

By replacing Dharmendra with Bhupender, the BJP has also signalled the end of the “old order” and beginning of a new one under Modi-Shah’s stewardship. Dharmendra, who was nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar during the Nitish-led NDA rule in the state, belonged to the old order. He was the last “vestige” of the JDU-BJP alliance cemented by L.K. Advani and Arun Jaitley.

Bhupender, a Supreme Court lawyer by profession, is believed to be the “chosen hand” of the Modi-Shah team. Sources said even senior party leaders like Sushil Kumar Modi and Nandkishore Yadav had no inkling about Bhupender replacing Dharmendra till they received Amit Shah’s notification on Tuesday evening.

If Lalu and Nitish are supposed to counter the challenge posed by the new Modi-Shah order, BJP leaders like Sushil Modi and Nandkishore too will have to work out their equations in the new background.