BJP's Bihar List: Four Key Takeaways

On 24 March 2024, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced its candidates for Bihar for General elections (GE), 2024. The party, playing the role of big brother now in the NDA in Bihar, is contesting on 17 seats in the state. 

The ticket distribution and its maths reveal a lot about party’s larger outlook for the state.

The new faces

From Muzaffarpur, BJP has canceled Ajay Nishad’s ticket. He will be replaced by Rajbhushan Chaudhary Nishad, a candidate whom Ajay Nishad had defeated in 2019 GE. Rajbhushan was then a member of Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP), led by Mukesh Sahani. 

Post 2019, Mukesh Sahani and his VIP have contested with the BJP for the prize of the Mallah community votes. By getting Rajbhushan Chaudhary Nishad on its side the BJP has told voters that the party is aware of anti-incumbency in the constituency and is not hesitant of taking corrective measure when necessary.

Secondly, by choosing Rajbhushan, the party has indicated its intention of making VIP irrelevant in the region.

In Buxar, BJP replaced Union Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey with Mithilesh Tiwari. BJP’s internal survey had reportedly indicated high anti-incumbency against Choubey. In February, he had a notorious rift with party workers.

Tiwari is currently general secretary in the party and is considered an energetic and proactive member. Since Tiwari belongs to the Brahmin community, the party hopes placate Brahmin voters unhappy with ousting of Choubey. Brahmins are in a decisive role in the constituency. Moreover, Tiwari and Choubey are considered close allies.

Sasaram’s Chhedi Paswan had also lost his seat due to anti-incumbency. This seat is reserved for the Scheduled Caste community (SC). Paswan couldn’t maintain the momentum he built on ground after beating former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar in 2014. His replacement Shivesh Ram has donned many hats including party’s state general secretary and member of legislative assembly (MLA).

Ram shares familial bond with Sasaram. His father Munni Lal became the first BJP leader to win from Sasaram in 1996. Ram is active on ground and has been promising people of completion of his father’s dream of developing Sasaram.

Community dynamics

Ten out of its 17 candidates are from the 'Forward' category, 50 per cent of whom are Rajputs. Brahmins and Bhumihars have been allocated two seats each. Three seats have been allocated to the members of Yadav community, traditionally regarded as the voter base of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Two candidates belong to Extremely Backward Communities (EBCs), while one was allocated to Dalit leader.

Senior figures retained

Before the announcement, the future of BJP’s heavyweights like Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Raj Kumar Singh, Giriraj Singh and Ravishankar Prasad was under a cloud of uncertainty.

In Saran, Rajiv Pratap Rudy’s candidature was at risk due to reports of party leadership not being happy with him. This is said to have forced Rudy to become more active in his constituency. In 2023, he proactively started talking about his achievements. He even carried out a yatra (without BJP’s banner), as a show of strength. 

Reports of RJD mulling to field Rohini Acharya, Lalu Yadav’s daughter eliminated possibility of the BJP doing any experiment in this. Saran has traditionally seen neck and neck contest between BJP and RJD. In such a contest, an experienced general like Rudy was seen as the better option.

In Begusarai, Giriraj Singh’s candidature was also at risk due to reports of anti-incumbency and emergence of Rakesh Sinha. He is also 71-years old. However, Singh’s proactive role in pushing the party's stand on Hindutva seems to have worked in his favour.

R.K. Singh (71) and Ravishankar Prasad (69) are other key members of the party whose candidatures were at risk due to their respective age. News of Pawan Singh replacing R.K. Singh also spread. However, the party decided to stick to Singh and Prasad.

Bihar-specific distribution 

One aspect of the ticket distribution in Bihar is that the issues the BJP is raising at a national level are not reflected in its list. For instance, the Modi government is going to the people with the claim that the 10 years of its administration has benefited women. It also passed Women Reservations Act. But in Bihar, the party has not fielded any woman candidate. Rama Devi, a sitting MP, also lost her seat due to coalition compulsion.

On the community front, only one Dalit and two EBC candidates have received BJP tickets.

On the other hand,13 out of 16 JD(U) tickets have gone to members of backward, SC, or minority communities. Two women and one Muslim have bagged the ticket from JD(U).

The 2024 Lok Sabha election will test the BJP's strength for 2025 assembly elections in the state. However, whether the political field in Bihar remains static till 2025 is still a valuable question.