NEW DELHI: The BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi’s aggressive OBC outreach appears to have left the party’s core upper caste base miffed in Bihar.
With the BJP getting too generous to woo OBC leaders from other parties in Bihar, the upper caste leaders in the state feel that they are being taken for a ride despite having built the party in Bihar.
The upper caste leaders have begun recalling episode of veteran party leader Tara Kant Jha crossing over to the JD(U) recently. Incidentally, Mr Jha was the face of the BJP in Bihar from the time of the Congress rule in 1980s till early days of RJD’s Lalu Prasad Yadav.
“Mr Jha quit the party because the BJP started ignoring Brahmins, while soliciting OBC leaders in the state. Those who are calling shots in the BJP these days forget that Brahmins and Bhumihars, the two upper castes, not only built the party in the state but are also staunch support base,” quipped a state BJP leader. “Bihar politics is caste ridden. The upper castes do have options to back the JD(U) or Congress if the BJP leadership does not mend their ways,” another leader said.
