From Karpoori Thakur’s village, PM Modi pledges priority for poor, signals NDA’s EBC push in Bihar polls

Karpoori Gram/Samastipur: As the sun climbed overhead on Friday afternoon, people, young and old, walked towards the Dudhpoora Helipad Grounds in Bihar’s Samastipur, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed an election rally – the first of a series scheduled across poll-bound Bihar in the coming days.

About three kilometres ahead of the venue, police had set up barricades to stop any vehicles from proceeding towards the rally site. To the left of the barricade is the road leading to Karpoori Gram — the ancestral village of former two-time chief minister and socialist icon – Karpoori Thakur.

“Hum Tajpur se Modiji ko sunne aaye hain, peeche apna bike park kie hain (I have come to from Tajpur to listen to Modiji. I parked my bike at the barricading),” Vinay Kumar Yadav, a graduate from Tajpur, the adjoining assembly seat, told this reporter.

Yadav has been an RJD voter all his life, he confided. “Itna log ayega to hum to dekhne aayege hi,” said the 24-year-old.

With PM’s rally in Samastipur, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) launched its campaign in poll-bound Bihar. Elections are scheduled in two phases – 6 November and 11 November. Results will be declared on 14 November

At around 1 PM, with nearly three-fourths of the ground filled, a loud cheer erupted as PM Modi appeared on the large screens, walking up to the stage. Others present on the dais included Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary, Ram Nath Thakur, Karpoori Thakur’s son, Chirag Paswan, among other NDA leaders.

‘Prioritising the backward, and serving the poor’

In his opening remarks, PM Modi invoked Karpoori Thakur by calling him a priceless gem of the country who brought social justice to independent India and connected the poor and disadvantaged with new opportunities.

“Our government considers Bharat Ratna Jannayak Karpoori Thakur Ji an inspiration. We have moved forward with this resolve of giving preference to the deprived, prioritising the backward, and serving the poor," the Prime Minister said during the address.

As Modi spoke, a sizeable number of people began leaving the venue — likely worried about missing the next bus home, especially since many had walked several kilometres to get there.

‘People out on bail in scams’

Continuing his speech, PM Modi launched an attack on the RJD and the Congress, part of Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, for trying to steal the title of Jan Nayak (People’s leader) used with Thakur.

"These people are out on bail in scams worth thousands of crores. Those who are out on bail are out on bail in theft cases. Now their habit of stealing is such that they are engaged in stealing the title of Karpoori Thakur. The people of Bihar will never tolerate this insult to the leader of the people, Karpoori Thakur. They will never tolerate it,” he said.

At a point during his speech, PM Modi asked people to turn on their phone lights. “If you have lights with your phone, why do we need a 'lalteen,'” the PM said, referring to RJD's election symbol ‘Lantern.’

Thakur’s ancestral village, Karpoori Gram, named after him following his death in 1988, is a few miles from the PM’s rally venue in Samatipur, 90 km from Patna. Before addressing the rally, Modi paid floral tribute at Thakur's memorial in Karpoori Gram, a unique village in itself in terms of development.

A grand gateway greets visitors along a freshly paved road lined with saffron flags. The village of 3000 people has a school, an inter-school, a high school, a degree college, a hospital, a railway station, and more, developed by successive governments in Bihar.

“PM visit is not linked to elections. He had promised us that he will come and visit when we met him last year in Delhi before the Bharat Ratna was announced,” Nityanand Thakur, Karpoori’s nephew, told this reporter in the village.

Co-opting Karpoori's socialist legacy

The choice of Karpoori Gram to launch the Bihar campaign is widely seen as the NDA’s attempt to woo the Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs), the community Karpoori Thakur belonged to.

Popularly known as ‘Jan Nayak’, or People’s Leader, Thakur was the son of a marginal farmer from the Nai (barber) community. He served as the chief minister of Bihar twice: first, between December 1970 and June 1971, as part of the Bharatiya Kranti Dal, and later, between December 1977 and April 1979, from the Janata Party.

The BJP-led NDA has long been attempting to co-opt Karpoori Thakur’s socialist legacy. The Central government awarded Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award, to Thakur in 2024.

The EBCs account for 36 per cent of Bihar’s population and are a sub-group within the Other Backwards Classes. The community is said to decide the winner in closely fought elections and each party tries to woo its members.

Congress’s Jibe

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Karpoori Gram, Congress took a swipe at the PM and asked whether it is not an acknowledged fact that the Jan Sangh brought down Thakur’s government in Bihar in April 1979 when the then CM introduced reservation for OBCs.

“Is it not a fact that Karpoori Thakur ji was subjected to the vilest abuse by RSS and Jan Sangh leaders then?” Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, wrote on X.

Back in the rally, PM Modi spoke about how the NDA government at the Centre has, over the years, prioritised the interests of the poor, Dalits, Mahadalits, backward classes, and extremely backward classes. He, the Prime Minister said, and others on the dias have come from humble backgrounds, like Karpoori Thakur.

“Our government has taken an important decision to provide 10 percent reservation to the poor among the general category. It is the BJP NDA that has extended the reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for another 10 years," he said.

The NDA is being challenged by the opposition’s Mahathbandhan of the Grand Alliance. Among other parties, the RJD is contesting 143 of the 243 seats of Bihar. Congress is contesting 61 seats, the CPI (M-L) is contesting 20, and Mukesh Sahani's VIP is contesting 15 seats in the India bloc.

An RJD stronghold

Samastipur seat has been a stronghold of the RJD since 2010. Akhtarul Islam Shahin has won the seat consecutively for three terms. In 2020, Shahin defeated JD-U's Ashwamedh Devi by 4,714 votes. Before 2010, Ram Nath Thakur, Karpoori’s son, was MLA from Samastipur. Karpoori Thakur represented the seat in the Bihar assembly as a Janata Dal leader in the 1980s.

Shahin is the RJD candidate while Ashwamedh Devi is contesting the election from the seat from on JD-U ticket

“Is baar badlaav hoga (There will be change this time),” said Amarjit Singh, who works with a local businessman in Karpoori Gram where elections will be held in first phase on November 6.