Tejas woos backward votebank

Patna: Political parties in Bihar are gearing up to woo votes on caste lines as Lok Sabha election is due next year.

In similar context, the RJD on Thursday tried to woo the votebank of Extremely Backward Classes (EBC), which constitutes about 30 per cent of the total Bihar votes.

The Opposition RJD on Thursday held a Dhanuk Sammelan at SK Memorial Hall, which comes under the EBC in which RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s younger son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav was the chief guest. He appealed the gathering of EBC members to give their precious votes to the RJD and assured them that the RJD will take care of their needs in return.

Former MLC Ram Badan Rai had organised the show in which he demanded the inclusion of the Dhanuk community in the list of Scheduled Castes, citing the example that in 19 states, Danuk community is part of the SC.

Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Thursday declared that in the ensuing elections, 60 per cent tickets will be distributed among the EBC and other castes including the upper caste be given ticket in the rest 40 per cent. “Lalu ji has a big heart and he will accommodate everyone. Just imagine the person (read Nitish Kumar) who sent him to jail was made the chief minister and also given life to Ram Vilas Paswan by sending him to Rajya Sabha. My father has done good work for so many people so I will appeal that in the coming days to vote for us. We will have balanced social composition,” Tejashwi said, followed by big applause from the public.

Nitish, after coming to power in 2005, had worked hard to make a votebank among the EBCs and the work done by his government had paid rich dividends to the NDA in the 2010 elections. The general election of 2014, however, witnessed a different trend and a good chunk of the EBC votes had gone to the BJP kitty. Since then, the BJP has been trying hard to retain these EBC voters. In the similar way, the RJD too are leaving no stone unturned to get the votes of this group, which will change the face of Bihar as the RJD already have support of the Muslims and the Yadavs, which compromise around 30 per cent of the total votebank.

At the beginning of the programme, Ram Badan Rai put a silver crown on Tejashwi’s head. The young RJD leader was accompanied by MLC S.M. Qamar Alam, MLA Shakti Singh Yadav and Masaurhi MLA Rekha Devi.

“People from Dhanuk community, Mallah, Noniya, Ravi Das, Musahar, Lohar, Kushwaha, Kurmi and all Backward Castes, including the minorities, will given equal rights and share. We will give respect to everyone,” Tejashwi said.

During the programme, the power went off for some time owing to which Tejashwi was unable to address the gathering and expressed his disappointed over the power scenario in Bihar.

Courtesy: The Telegraph