Notwithstanding the protestations by the rival fronts in Bihar, both have given caste primacy in candidate-selection. Cast(e) your vote being the mantra in one of the more backward states in the country, all that talk about development from the pulpit has taken a backseat while choosing candidates. As feared, the politics of Mandal has only helped to bring caste up front, centre and middle of the electoral politics. There are now single caste-based parties not only in Bihar but in the relatively more advanced states such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Back in the 60s, the Socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia was aghast at the decision of his own party not to field him for a Lok Sabha by-election because he did not fit into the caste composition of the concerned constituency. Indeed, it was said that Nehru fed into the caste consciousness of the nation when he allowed the appellation ‘Pandit’ to be prefixed before his name. However, the post-Mandal polity has regressed so much despite the spread of political awareness and growing literacy that it is hard for the votaries of development to discount caste as a principal factor in candidate selection. Otherwise, Lalu Yadav, who is a convict in the multi-crore fodder scam, would not have called the shots while Nitish Kumar played a passive spectator in drawing up the list of candidates of the anti-BJP front. Indeed, Nitish Kumar features more in the media while on the ground it is the tainted Lalu who still can count on the support of Yadavs in Bihar.
