RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday wrote to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar demanding a special session of the Assembly to pass a law raising reservations to 85 per cent, seeking to up the quota heat in the election-bound state.

Patna High Court had set aside a legislation passed by the Bihar government in 2023 raising the quota ceiling to 75 per cent in the state, arguing that the hike was not backed by a “scientific study”. The state government had used the results of an ambitious caste survey to increase quotas.

Tejashwi, who was deputy chief minister in the then Nitish-led government, urged the chief minister to constitute an all-party committee to undertake a “scientific study” and call a special session of the Assembly to pass a law based on the panel’s report. Nitish’s JDU snapped ties with the RJD and aligned with the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Piling pressure on Nitish, the RJD leader demanded that the new legislation passed by the Assembly be sent to the NDA government at the Centre with the recommendation for placing it in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution to bar judicial review.

Tejashwi, the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, threatened to launch a “massive state-wide agitation” if the Bihar government failed to pass the law. “In the interest of the 90 per cent Dalits, tribals, backwards and extremely backwards and those suppressed for ages, I will launch a massive agitation,” he said.

“Does the current NDA government, which runs on the principles of the BJP and the RSS, not want the reservation limit to be raised to 85 per cent to benefit the state’s Dalits, tribals, backwards, extremely backwards and the other deprived sections?” Tejashwi asked in his letter.

The Bihar polls scheduled in October-November will be a bipolar contest between the incumbent NDA led by Nitish and the Opposition Mahagathbandhan helmed by the RJD. Tejashwi is said to be eyeing the chief minister’s chair.

The RJD’s support base in the state primarily comprises the OBC Yadavs and the minority Muslims, and Tejashwi has been aggressively trying to expand among the extremely backwards and sections of Dalits. Pressing for a new law to raise the reservation levels appeared to be an effort to woo the non-Yadav backwards, seen as a vote base of Nitish.

Tejashwi referred to Tamil Nadu, where 69 per cent reservations are in force, stressing that Bihar too could have its own law protected by the Ninth Schedule.