Indian Politics & Policy Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2020 | Page 83

The Backwards Turn Right in the Hindi Belt: Trajectories and Implications
by a few groups at the forefront of mobilization
of the backward castes. 29 They
appeared to use these parties for their
own political ascendency. For instance,
the share of Yadavs and Kurmis in the
OBC Members of Parliament (MPs) by
the end of the 1990s grew so much so
that each of these castes happened to
represent about one-third of the OBC
MPs in North India. 30 As leaders like
Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad
Yadav became deeply entrenched in
power their parties and governments,
more and more looked to be identified
with Yadavs. Not only did the Yadavs
dominate positions at every level of the
party structure, but they also began to
do so in the state bureaucracy. 31 The
growing phenomenon of yadavization
in these two parties generated tension
and irked the leaders of caste groups as
dominant as the Yadavs. 32 They raised
the banner of revolt. In Bihar, Nitish
Kumar, an influential leader from the
Kurmi caste (an upwardly mobile backward
caste), broke away and founded
his own party. Similar developments
also took place in UP, as leaders like
Sone Lal Patel and Veni Prasad Verma
(both belonging to the Kurmi caste) left
the SP. Thus, the tension within and between
the upper crust of the backward
castes marked the first wave of drift of
OBCs away from RJD and the SP. Although
Kurmis and Koeris broke away
early, sections of the most backward
castes, also referred to as lower OBCs,
stayed with the social justice parties for
some time. But for a variety of reasons,
a few of which are pointed out below,
they too began to desert these parties
after 2004 (Table 2).
Table 2: Declining Vote Share of RJD and
the SP among Lower OBCs
LS Elections RJD* SP**
1996 37 15
1999 30 26
2004 38 27
2009 12 25
2014 10 13
2019 11 18
Notes:
All figures are in percent (rounded) and weighted
by actual vote share of the respective parties.
* RJD’s figures, including allies, are for Bihar
only. The 1996 figure refers to JD, as RJD came
into existence in 1998.
** SP’s figures, including allies, are for UP only.
Source: NES, respective years
At another level, these parties
also appeared to behave as family enterprises,
as top positions in the party
were reserved for family members of
the leaders who controlled the party. 33
This phenomenon affected these parties
in ways more than one. At one level,
blocking of mobility within the party
structures did not go well, even with
leaders of the same caste as that of the
party patriarch, as many felt that they
would not rise to the top no matter how
hard they worked for the party. This led
to exit of many leaders, including those
belonging to the same caste that the
party patriarchs hailed from. Most of
these leaders joined the opposite camp.
Worse still, the war of succession within
the extended families of the party patriarchs
struck the underbelly of these
parties. The party patriarchs’ blatant
preference for their own sons alienated
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