“I want to talk about those who who use jaativaad (casteism) to keep you in poverty,” said Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Union MoS for Food Processing Industries, Friday, addressing a rally at Matihani assembly constituency in Begusarai.

She then asked the crowd: “Should we not give an apt response to them (this election)? I am asking you. Jawab dena chahiye ya nahi dena chahiye?”

“Dena chahiye,” they replied.

It could have made the preface to Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste if it were not for the fact that Sadhvi Jyoti was at Chandpura village precisely because of her caste identity.

According to BJP workers in the village, over half of Chandpura’s 5,000 voters belong to the Nishad community. Also called Mallah, the identity is an umbrella for about 20 sub-castes of boatmen and fishermen who figure in the Extremely Backward Classes list in the state, and comprise about five per cent of its population.

Sadhvi Jyoti, also a Nishad, was identified as a “leader of Nishads” by Shivshankar Nishad, a BJP leader who spoke before her.

The Indian Express had on October 3 reported how the BJP was working to target voters with campaigners of their own caste.

“Those along the Ganga and Kosi were displaced by floods and live in such a pathetic situation, but you still talk of reservations,” said Sadhvi Jyoti, addressing the BJP’s political rivals.

She stopped short of calling for an end to caste-based reservations, but argued that Bihar’s politicians had rendered them ineffective. “You talk of reservations, but first build toilets for women in villages,” she said.

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