Dalit Voters Desert Grand Alliance in Bihar Election, Back NDA

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The Grand Alliance's (GA) efforts to win over Dalit voters in the 2025 Bihar election have fallen short, with the coalition securing only four of the 38 reserved seats for the Scheduled Caste. This represents a significant decline from the 17 seats won by the GA in 2020. The results highlight the GA's inability to break free from the Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) traditional Muslim-Yadav vote bank and underscore the winning strategy of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar. The NDA's focus on law and order and welfare development has resonated with Dalit voters, who fear the return of 'Jungle Raj' under an RJD-led government. In the run-up to the election, there were widespread concerns about lawlessness in Dalit settlements if the GA returned to power. Nitish Kumar's government has implemented measures to empower Dalits financially and politically, which has earned their trust. The NDA has successfully played on these fears, warning voters of the potential return of 'Jungle Raj' under a GA government. Ashok Bharti, Chairman of the National Confederation of Dalit & Adivasi Organisations (NACDAOR), attributes the GA's failure to a lack of prominent Dalit leaders and concerns about the Yadav leadership within the coalition. Pramod Kumar, a Muzzafarpur-based political commentator, notes that Nitish Kumar's creation of a 'Maha-Dalit' category has provided additional benefits to Dalit voters, while the NDA boasts two strong Dalit faces: Union minister Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Majhi. While a senior Congress leader acknowledges lapses in the party's Dalit outreach, Bharti cautions that a counter-consolidation of Dalit votes cannot be ruled out. The Bihar election results serve as a wake-up call for the Congress party to overhaul its strategy for social justice and become more proactive in adopting Dalit causes.