Patna

Caste is the biggest factor to define the social structure of Bihar and people choose their life partner and elect their representatives from the same caste as theirs.

There is a perception here that people from the same caste may be better disposed and more trustworthy than people from other castes.

Politicians, especially in the current ruling parties, understand this mentality of the people and went for the caste based survey to make people aware about their actual strength.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav who are well aware of the caste combinations of Bihar, released the data of the caste based survey on October 2 with the aim to clear the confusion among people about their numbers. Also, the chance of creating confusion in the minds of voters by the political parties would no longer fully apply in Bihar following this report.

The Bihar government has counted 215 castes and their actual numbers. This would turn out to be a master stroke by Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad, to counter the Narendra Modi led BJP.

For Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad, the caste based survey is similar to the Mandal Commission report that was brought by Vishawanath Pratap Singh after assuming power at the Centre. At that time, he was confronting the Congress party which was represented by and large by people of the upper castes. Now, the upper castes are the core voters of the BJP and Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar released the caste based survey to defeat the saffron party.