Patna: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav reached Bihar Thursday to attend a function in what appeared to be an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to showcase the country’s ‘only Yadav CM’ for wooing a community that remains aligned with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
At the function organised by the Shri Krishna Chetna Manch in Patna, the Madhya Pradesh CM thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for expressing confidence in the son of Yadav.
“When Lord Krishna killed Kansa, he became great but did not sit on the throne. If you have not read Gita, then life is incomplete. Gita always keeps guiding. Whoever left the path of Dharma, may Lord Shri Krishna step forward to establish Dharma,” Yadav said at the event.
Krishna is revered by the Yadavs who claim to be descendants of the Yadu dynasty, the same clan to which Krishna is said to belong. The Yadavs mostly follow Vaishnav traditions and religious beliefs.
"कृष्णं वंदे जगद्गुरुम्"
मैं बाबा महाकाल की पावन नगरी उज्जैन और माँ क्षिप्रा के तट से यहां आकर माँ गंगा के तटवासियों को प्रणाम करता हूं।
पटना की धरती गौरवशाली इतिहास और जीवंत संस्कृति का अनूठा उदाहरण है।
हमारे आराध्य भगवान श्री कृष्ण ने गीता के माध्यम से जो उपदेश दिए हैं, वो… pic.twitter.com/v3ATy1hqSU
— Dr Mohan Yadav (@DrMohanYadav51) January 18, 2024
The Yadavs comprise the largest caste group in Bihar, constituting 14 percent of the population, according to the findings of the 2023 Bihar caste survey. In Bihar, the Yadavs fall in the Other Backward Class (OBC) category.
In the 2019 general election, the UPA, which comprises the RJD, among others, largely retained its Yadav vote share, but there was some erosion. While 55 per cent Yadavs voted for the UPA, 21 percent voted for the NDA, according to the CDSD-Lokniti post-poll survey in Bihar.
The BJP has been aggressively wooing the Yadavs in the eastern state. It appointed Nityanand Rai, a Yadav leader, its Bihar unit chief in 2016. He held the post for close to three years. In 2019, PM Modi made him the minister of state for home.
Last November, the party organised a Yaduvanshi conference after which Nityanand Rai claimed that 21,000 people of the Yadav community joined the BJP.
Mohan Yadav’s appointment as the Madhya Pradesh CM was also said to be an attempt to reach out to the community especially in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana.
Politics surrounding visit
Political observer D.M. Diwakar asserted that the visit was part of the BJP’s plan to reach out to the community.
“The BJP has been trying for a long time to make a dent in the Yadav vote bank, but it is not succeeding. Mohan Yadav’s visit to Bihar is also a part of this (plan) to send a message to the community. The BJP had earlier tried to field Yadavs against (RJD supremo) Lalu, but it did not make much difference. Lalu is a mass leader in Bihar and not just the leader of Yadavs. He is the leader of the poor,” the former director of AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies told ThePrint.
Sanjay Kumar, assistant professor at Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Motihari, said the leadership of Lalu and his son Tejashwi was stemming the BJP’s efforts to find acceptance among the Yadavs.
“The entire Yadav community is with Lalu, and there is no doubt about it. But the BJP also wants to give a message to the Yadav community. However, this will not make much difference, but they want to connect them with Hindutva politics through programmes like these. But due to the strong leadership of Lalu Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav, they are not able to succeed in this,” he told ThePrint.
“The BJP is including Yadavs in other states into its Hindutva formula. But it is not successful in UP, Bihar. The biggest reason for this in Bihar is the influence of the socialist movement. Due to issues like caste census and reservation, politics is driven by the caste angle. And in caste politics, the Yadavs stand with the RJD,” Kumar asserted.
“Shri Krishna Chetna Manch is an organisation of the Yadav community. Since Mohan Yadav is the only CM in the entire country from the community, it is a matter of pride for the Yadavs to have the most educated person in the country,” senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav told ThePrint.
BJP state spokesperson Rakesh Singh said the Yadavs in Bihar are happy after Mohan Yadav became the chief minister. “The Yadav community is now inclined towards the BJP. There is a family here who feels the Yadavs are in their pocket. Now their shop is going to be closed,” he told ThePrint, in an indirect reference to RJD’s Lalu Prasad.
The RJD suggested that the Madhya Pradesh CM’s visit would not cause any ripple in the state’s politics.
“The BJP made him the CM only so that he can woo the Yadavs of Bihar and UP, but it is not going to get results. He organised a Yadav conference, but the people who attended the conference said that they were tricked as it was not divulged that this was a BJP programme,” RJD national spokesperson Kanchana Yadav told ThePrint.
Similarly, RJD chief spokesperson Shakti Singh Yadav asserted that everyone was welcomed in Bihar.
“Leaders keep coming and going. Narendra Modi comes, so does Amit Shah and Bhupendra Yadav. Everyone is welcome. Perhaps, he (the MP CM) came to pay respect to this soil due to which he got the honour. The party which earlier used to avoid the backward classes, is honoring them. What does the RJD have to do with this?” he told ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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