Political climate of Bihar heats up as INDIA bloc offers sops to EBC voters

With an eye on the crucial Bihar Assembly elections due in October-November, the INDIA bloc launched the ‘Ati-Pichhra Nyaya Sankalp’, a 10-point resolution to ensure socio-political and economic justice for the Extremely Backward Class (EBC) communities, in Patna on Wednesday.

The politically crucial EBC communities are able to reshape Bihar’s politics. Every party has been trying to secure their fragmented loyalties ahead of the 2025 Assembly elections in the state.

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Launching the resolution, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, stating that the Nitish Kumar government did not do anything for the EBC communities during his 20-year rule, alleged that the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar “used them as a vote bank”.

Going by the resolution, if voted to power in the state, the INDIA bloc will ensure 30 per cent reservation for EBC communities in Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies, 50 per cent reservation for EBCs, SCs, STs, and OBCs in government contracts of up to Rs 25 crore, besides ensuring proper reservation for the EBCs in private institutions.

The new government will enact a law, aptly titled “Extremely Backward Atrocities Prevention Act” and a high-powered Reservation Regulatory Authority would be established to oversee reservation matters, and any changes to the reservation list of castes will only be possible with the legislature’s approval.

Under the Right to Education Act (2010), passed by the previous UPA government at the Centre, half of the reserved seats in private schools will be allocated for children from Extremely Backward Classes, Backward Castes, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes.

The reservation will also be implemented for the admissions to all private educational institutions under Article 15(5) of the Constitution.

The INDIA bloc government will also raise the 50 per cent cap on reservation based on proportion of the population, the law passed by the legislature will be sent to the Central government for inclusion in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.

The resolution also promises to provide three decimals of residential land in urban areas and five decimals in rural areas to all landless residential individuals from OBCs, EBCs, SC and ST communities.

Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav said these 10 resolutions are the minimum that they have promised. Their government will do everything possible to ensure social justice along with economic justice to bring those people to the mainstream. “Besides these 10 points, we will also implement all recommendations made by the Mandal Commission,” he added.