As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to set the political battlefield through visits of Hindutva leaders ahead of Bihar assembly elections, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has given clear indication of returning to Mandal politics to counter the BJP’s plan.

It is said that in politics, there is no coincidence, but there is experimentation and the goal is to achieve power or to retain it.

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Thus the simultaneous presence of three big faces of Hindutva, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat, Bageshwar Baba Acharya Dhirendra Shastri and Sri Sri Pandit Ravi Shankar in Bihar couldn’t go unnoticed.

The Mahagathbandhan leaders have called it politically motivated, while the BJP is not seeing politics in it. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) is silent.

To counter it, the RJD leaders have decided to raise the reservations issue more forcefully. The party has been blaming the NDA government in Bihar of depriving the unemployed youth of backward, extremely backward, Dalit and the tribal society by ignoring their legitimate demand to increase the reservation limit to 65 per cent.

On Sunday, the RJD organised a day-long dharna in Patna to protest against the NDA government’s policy.

Addressing the protestors, Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav said that the 17-month-old Mahagathbandhan government had increased the reservation limit from 49.5 per cent to 65 per cent. The Mahagathbandhan government had also sent a proposal to include it in the 9th Schedule of the Centre.

He said, “The BJP-led central government did not include it in the 9th Schedule, consequently unemployed youth of the backward, extremely backward, Dalit and the tribal society have been deprived of 16 per cent reservation. By ignoring our demand, they have been stealing the fortune of these youth. The BJP-Nitish government has deprived people of about 50,000 jobs so far.”

The RJD leader said that his party has been closely monitoring the issue which is currently pending in the Supreme Court.

He said, “But we will not sit silently waiting for the court’s decision indefinitely. We will raise the issue everywhere, from the roads to the House, and will not let the NDA government steal the rights of our youth.”