The Opposition Mahagathbandhan in Bihar on Wednesday unveiled a manifesto that takes up the cause of the Extremely Backward Classes, considered a vote bank of chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United.

At the launch of the Atipichhda Nyay Sankalp Patra, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said: “We seek a vision that goes beyond party politics. It is a vision for the Atipichhda Samaj. The points which we have mentioned (in the manifesto) are reservation and the formation of a dedicated committee to address concerns of under-inclusion...”

EBCs form more than a third of the poll-bound state’s population.

Leaders of all alliance parties, including Bihar Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav, spoke at the event in Patna.

The 10-point manifesto promises more quotas, a Reservation Regulatory Authority, a law against atrocities on EBCs and land allocations to the backward classes.

At the Congress’s extended working committee meeting in Patna on Wednesday, the party appealed to Bihar’s voters to back its vigilance against the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, which it sees as “exclusionary”.

“The Congress Working Committee declares that the conspiracy of the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls is the greatest threat to our democracy today…. When the vote of the people is stolen, their future, their dignity and their constitutional entitlements are stolen along with it… Shri Rahul Gandhi undertook the Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar to oppose this exclusionary and anti-democratic exercise. The Yatra carried a clear message to every village and every street of Bihar that unless each citizen’s vote is protected, their rights, their future and, by extension, that of democracy can never be secure,” the appeal stated.

It urged the people of Bihar to recognise the power of their vote.

“Since Mahatma Gandhi’s first Satyagraha in India, against indigo planters in Champaran, Bihar has always guided the direction of the nation. It once again stands at a decisive juncture today. The Congress Working Committee calls upon all voters of Bihar to strengthen this democratic fight,” it said.