Lok Sabha Election Results: Mandal finally reins in Kamandal

Mandal reins in Kamandal, the biggest example of this is the political success of Uttar Pradesh and SP. Akhilesh Yadav’s entire PDA formula (Backward, Dalit and Minority) was the realization of Mandal politics in concrete form. Dr. Siddhartha explains

Siddhartha, (Edited by: Rajan/Naval/Anil)

The results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are clear evidence of the fact that the flag-carrying horse of Kamandal or Hindutva has not only been reined in, but it has also become lame. Now it cannot even walk without crutches. The BJP has not even got the minimum number of seats (272) required to form the government on its own and it and all its alliance partners (NDA) have also got only 293 seats in total. Even the entire NDA together has not been able to cross the 300 mark.

The question is who reined in the flag-carrying horse of Kamandal and who made it lame? The answer is clear that the work of reining in this horse and making it lame has been done by Mandal. The Mandal whose ideology, agenda and politics had been declared irrelevant by many liberal, leftist thinkers and analysts. Some were even blaming Mandal for the rise and power of Kamandal. But ultimately the same Mandal stopped Modi’s victory campaign and forced him to stand (form government) and walk with the help of crutches of people like Nitish or Chandrababu Naidu.

The next question arises that on the basis of which facts can it be said that Mandal reined in Kamandal? No one can deny the fact that Rahul Gandhi first created such a positive narrative against Narendra Modi before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which slowly became a narrative of the whole country. The truth is that for the first time after 2014 and 2019, the opposition was able to create an effective narrative against Modi. This narrative was of caste census and along with it socio-economic survey. While explaining this narrative, Rahul Gandhi raised the question of the participation of Bahujans in public institutions and organizations, citing as an example the fact that how many SC-ST and OBCs are there among the secretaries of the central government. He talked about the participation of these deprived communities in the High Courts and Supreme Courts. He underlined their absence in the media, and even started emphasizing the need for reservation in the private sector. There was nothing in all these things said by Rahul Gandhi that was not already in the report of the Mandal Commission or in the agenda of politics. For a very long time, the Dalit-Bahujan movement and Dalit-Bahujan politics i.e. Mandal politics have been raising these questions and have been fighting for it from the streets to the Parliament. Rahul Gandhi presented these questions of Mandal movement and politics as questions of Congress and his own and made it a nationwide issue. Along with this, he said that it is because of the Constitution and democracy of India that SC-ST and OBC have got representation and participation. He also underlined the fact that this representation and participation can be increased only by using the Constitution and democratic process.

Mandal movement is still effective

He loudly propagated and spread throughout the country that the Constitution and democracy and the representation and participation based on it are under threat from the BJP led by Narendra Modi. This proved to be effective too. Along with this, he said that without saving the Constitution, the interests of SC-ST, OBC and minorities cannot be protected. Taking this narrative forward, he said that it is necessary to defeat the BJP to save the Constitution and democracy. This narrative of his became a hit. He started talking about saving the Constitution by holding it in his hand in every public meeting. Later, he also started waving pictures of Dr. Ambedkar, who had become the symbolic personality of the Constitution, in his hands. It became such a hit that Narendra Modi had to focus his entire election campaign on rejecting or diverting this narrative. Narendra Modi was so upset by this that

He started talking nonsense like Mangalsutra, taking away one of the two buffaloes and giving property to those who produce more children. Everyone understood that the purpose of these talks was to turn the question of SC-ST and OBC share into a Hindu-Muslim question.

Was the agenda or narrative of saving the Constitution created by Rahul Gandhi? The answer is – No. The Constitution and democracy are under threat from RSS-BJP. Dalit-Bahujans were running this campaign for the last 10 years. Many organizations and individuals were running movements on a large scale for this. These organizations and individuals had conveyed this to a large section of Bahujans. People were also feeling this by seeing the anti-constitution activities of the Narendra Modi government. It is clear that the narrative of saving the Constitution was also a gift of the Dalit-Bahujan (Mandal) movement. Yes, Rahul Gandhi played a big role in making this agenda of saving the Constitution a big electoral agenda by using his stature in politics and the All India organization of the Congress. It is clear that the main basis of the agenda or narrative on the basis of which Rahul Gandhi gained widespread public support or popularity was the Mandal movement and Mandal politics. It is true that he also added other issues and agendas to it. A broad coalition of political parties doing politics based on Mandal was formed. The most important constituents of the India Alliance, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, DMK Munetra Kazhagam, and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, etc. were already doing Mandal politics. Yes, Rahul Gandhi and India Alliance did assure them that this is our agenda too. This definitely gave more strength to SP, RJD, DMK and JMM. A part of the leftist parties had already adopted the Mandal agenda, like CPI (ML-Liberation) etc. Other leftist parties also added it to their agenda and stood with it openly.

It was Mandal that put a rein on Kamandal, the biggest example of this is the political success of Uttar Pradesh and SP. Akhilesh Yadav’s entire PDA formula (backward, Dalit and minority) was the realization of Mandal politics in concrete form. In ticket distribution, he gave place to various backward castes, extremely backward and Dalits on a large scale. The fact that SP is a party of Yadavs and Muslims was completely rejected by his method of ticket distribution. He repeatedly underlined in his public meetings that the constitution is in danger, reservation is in danger, democracy is in danger, even elections and the electoral process are in danger. He called for defeating the BJP to save the constitution, democracy, reservation and the rights of SC-ST, OBC and minorities. He also appealed to the upper castes to come forward to save India’s achievement, constitution and democracy. In true sense, Akhilesh Yadav completely placed SP on the ground of Mandal politics. He found a solution to the BJP’s strategy of separating non-Yadav backwards from Yadavs, separating extremely backwards from backwards and separating non-Jatav Dalits from Jatav Dalits and by implementing Mandal politics in true sense, he defeated the BJP in the birthplace of Kamandal or the stronghold of Kamandal. Under the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav, SP deeply hurt the backbone of Kamandal with its Mandal politics in the stronghold of Kamandal. Surprising everyone, BJP was reduced to 33 seats in Uttar Pradesh. BJP’s tally was reduced to half as compared to 2019. No one had even imagined that BJP would be reduced to 33 seats in Uttar Pradesh. That too after all the conspiracies and antics of the trio of Yogi-Modi-Amit Shah. The Mandal formula adopted by Akhilesh Yadav to counter Kamandal in Uttar Pradesh defeated BJP in Uttar Pradesh. He gave such a blow to BJP that it is unable to get up. By adopting the Mandal formula, SP not only secured 37 seats for itself, but also added 6 seats to the bag of its ally Congress. While on one hand Rahul Gandhi helped SP with his narrative, on the other hand SP helped Congress to stand strong in Uttar Pradesh with the social mathematics of Mandal. BJP is just 32 seats short of majority at the Centre. If there is one place where it has lost so many seats, it is Uttar Pradesh. If we look at the maths of the election results of the whole country, BJP has lost somewhere, and has compensated for it to some extent in other places. But it could not compensate for the nearly 30 seats of Uttar Pradesh.

The Mandal formula was strongly adopted by RJD, Congress, CPI (ML) and other allies of the All India Alliance in Bihar. In Bihar, it was led by Tejashwi Yadav. Even though they did not get the expected success in the electoral maths, this alliance succeeded in snatching about 9 seats from the NDA alliance. The main party (RJD) doing Mandal politics here had a relatively weak performance in the election results compared to Uttar Pradesh, as a result of which the election results were not good for the Congress either. It too could win only one seat. This fact is proof of the fact that the success or failure of Mandal politics has played a big role in the success and failure of the Congress. Here, a big reason for the partial failure of the All India Alliance and the relatively better success of the NDA alliance in Uttar Pradesh was the presence of JDU (led by Nitish), a strong party doing politics on the basis of Mandal, with the BJP. Despite this, Tejashwi

The Mahagathbandhan led by was successful in reducing BJP’s votes by 8 percent. BJP’s vote share in Uttar Pradesh was also reduced by the same percentage as compared to 2019. But in Bihar, BJP had JDU, a party with Mandalist base, with it.

The biggest reason for the comparatively better performance of Congress and allies in Rajasthan has been the support of Dalits, tribals and backward classes. Here too Mandal worked mainly. Still, BJP won 14 out of 25 seats. Congress got 8 and its allies got 2 seats and one seat went to Bharat Adivasi Party. Congress and allies have got the most success in those areas where Dalits-tribals and backward classes are in large numbers and Dalit and tribal movement has been gaining momentum for the last 10 years. The widespread popularity of Bhim Army in Rajasthan in the last 7-8 years is a proof of this. The reason for the success of Bharat Adivasi Party, which was formed only 6-7 months ago, in winning one seat is the demand of tribal organizations in southern Rajasthan for a separate Bhil state (combining Bhil tribal dominated areas of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra) and the growing momentum of tribal movements.

The same situation prevailed in Jharkhand even after limited success. Here, out of 14 seats, 5 seats went to India Alliance and 8 to BJP. India Alliance has got success only in tribal dominated areas. Haryana is a Jat, OBC and Dalit dominated state. Where Congress managed to win 5 seats. 5 seats went to BJP. Punjab, the home of Sant Nanak, the hero of Bahujan-Shramana tradition, did not even allow BJP to open its account this time. There, 7 out of 13 seats went to Congress and 3 seats went to Aam Aadmi Party. In Delhi, along with BJP, Aam Aadmi Party has also been doing more or less the same Kamandal type of politics, albeit in a slightly softer form. There was no challenge of Mandal politics there. Here, Congress also did not get any seat.

Congress was completely wiped out in Madhya Pradesh. BJP won all 29 seats because Mandal politics has never had a strong presence there and it is not there now. Leaders like Kamal Nath have mainly been doing upper caste Hindutva politics. The same is the case with Chhattisgarh, where Congress has got only one seat. BJP won 10 out of 11 seats. In both these states, if we leave aside the undeclared anti-Muslim attitude of Congress, then BJP has been doing the same kind of politics while being in power and opposition. Kamal Nath and Bhupesh Baghel, both did almost the same kind of politics as Kamandal while being the Chief Minister. Cow, cow dung, Ramvan Gaman Path were the schemes of Bhupesh Baghel. Kamal Nath went even further and openly did upper caste politics with Ram. Congress could not win even a single seat in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, states with upper caste majority voters. BJP won all the five seats of Uttarakhand and all the four seats of Himachal. There, in contrast to the politics of Kamandal, Congress has been doing more or less the same politics as Kamandal to please the upper caste voters of the state, because upper caste voters are in majority in both the states. BJP has won 25 seats out of 26 seats in Gujarat except one seat. There has been no strong base of Bahujan-Dalit politics in Gujarat either. There has been only the politics of hard (BJP) and soft (Congress) Hindutva.

If seen in the light of facts without any prejudice, if the India Alliance was successful in challenging Narendra Modi in its narrative and agenda in the 2024 elections and BJP had to lose 63 seats compared to 2019, then the main reason for this was the strong challenge of Mandal politics in front of Kamandal politics. Kamandal politics was born only to end Mandal politics. Mandal politics was termed as Shudra revolution by RSS mouthpiece Organiser. There was a call to stop this revolution. Kamandal politics came to the fore to stop it. The struggle between Mandal and Kamandal politics continued for two decades. At that time, Kanshiram, Mulayam Singh and Lalu Yadav were the leaders of Mandal’s Bahujan politics. In 2014, Kamandal politics under the leadership of Narendra Modi made a decisive attack on Mandal politics. For this, Kamandal politics also wore the thin mask of Mandal politics (in the form of Narendra Modi, Ramnath Kovind, Draupadi Murmu etc.). In 2014 and 2019, no situation arose to challenge Kamandal politics. The opposition created various narratives, but all failed. It was said that Kamandal politics has buried Mandal politics in the grave forever. Many left-liberal people were also seen celebrating the burial of Mandal politics. But ultimately Mandal politics itself pulled the reins of the horse of Kamandal politics and made it lame. Courtesy: Hindi News

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