The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is a centre-right to right-wing conservative Indian political alliance led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was founded in 1998 and currently controls the government of India as well as the government of 15 Indian states and one Union territory.
Janata Dal (United) ("People’s Party (United)"), abbreviated as JD(U), is an Indian political party with political presence mainly in eastern and north-eastern India. JD(U) is recognised as a state party in the states of Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur and is a part of government in Bihar. JD(U) heads the government in Bihar and has remained the second largest party in Manipur. JD(U) won 16 seats in the 2019 Indian general election, making it the seventh largest party in the Lok Sabha.
Nitish Kumar is an Indian politician, who is serving as 22nd Chief Minister of Bihar since 22 February 2015, having previous held the office from 2005 to 2014 and for a short period in 2000. He is the leader of the Janata Dal (United), who previously he has also served as a Union Minister as the Samata Party member.He was member of the Samata Party until 2005 and Janata Dal from 1989 to 1994. Kumar first entered politics as a member of the Janata Dal, becoming an MLA in 1985. A socialist, Kumar founded the Samata Party in 1994 along with George Fernandes. In 1996 he was elected to the Lok Sabha, and served as a Union Minister in the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, with his party joining the National Democratic Alliance. In 2003 his party merged into the Janata Dal (United), and Kumar became its leader. In 2005, the NDA won a majority in the Bihar Legislative Assembly, and Kumar became chief minister heading a coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Suraj Bhan was a former Governor, Member of Parliament and an Indian politician from Bharatiya Janata Party.
Kushwaha is a community of the Indo-Gangetic Plain that has traditionally been involved in agriculture, including beekeeping. The term has been used to represent different sub-castes of the Kachhis, Koeris and Muraos. Under the Indian governments system of positive discrimination, the Kushwahas are classified as a "Backward" or Other backward class. The Kushwaha had worshipped Shiva and Shakta, but beginning in the 20th century, they claim descent from the Suryavansh (Solar) dynasty via Kusha, one of the twin sons of Rama and Sita. In Bihar, many Koeris, who possess land, education and government jobs have become upwardly mobile and demonstrate upper-caste characteristics.
R.L.P. Verma was a former member of Lok Sabha and a leader of Bhartiya Janata Party. He was elected to Lok Sabha from Kodarma in Jharkhand state in India for five terms. He was born to an agrarian family belonging to kushwaha(Koeri) caste.
Laxmi Narayan Mehta is a former member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly from Bihar, India. He is from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and represents the Forbesganj Assembly constituency. Mehta is a member of Koeri community. In 2009 Indian general elections, Mehta expressed his discontent against the descision of the high command of the Bhartiya Janata Party, which decided not to field any candidate from the Koeri caste in the general elections of 2009. Mehta, in an interview to the print media, told that estimated population of his caste group was 9 percent in the state of Bihar. He further stressed that there are approx 60,000 votes in each Parliamentary constituency of Bihar, belonging to people of his caste and hence they deserved representation in the seat sharing arrangement.
The politics of Bihar, an eastern state of India, is dominated by regional political parties. As of 2021, the main political parties are Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Janata Dal (United) (JDU). There are also some smaller regional parties, including Samata Party, Hindustani Awam Morcha, Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal, Jan Adhikar Party and Vikassheel Insaan Party, Lok Janshakti Party and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party, which play a vital role in politics of state. As of 2022, Bihar is currently ruled by Mahagatbandhan (Grandalliance) coalition.
The Koeri, also referred to as Kushwaha and more recently self-described as Maurya in several parts of northern India are an Indian non-elite caste, found largely in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, whose traditional occupation was agriculture. According to Arvind Narayan Das they were horticulturist rather than agriculturists. Koeris have attempted Sanskritisation— as part of social resurgence. During the British rule in India, Koeris were described as "agriculturalists" along with Kurmis and other cultivating castes. They are described as a dominant caste in various opinions.
Rashtriya Lok Samta Party was a political party in India led by Upendra Kushwaha. It was launched on 3 March 2013 and was based in the state of Bihar. The party came into existence as a result of a feud between Nitish Kumar and Upendra Kushwaha, after which Kushwaha left The Nitish Kumar lead Janata Dal (United) and formed his own party. It has faced multiple rebellions and desertions since 2015. After the relations between Nitish and Kushwaha normalized, Upendra Kushwaha merged RLSP into JDU on March 14th 2021, with this, the party ceased to exit.
Upendra Singh Kushwaha is an Indian politician and a former Member of Bihar Legislative Council and Bihar Legislative Assembly. He has also served as the Minister of State for Human Resources and Development in the Government of India. Kushwaha is a former Member of parliament from the Karakat constituency in Rohtas district, Bihar and a former member of the Rajya Sabha as well. He was the leader of his own party named Rashtriya Samata Party (RSP) which merged into Janata Dal (United) (JDU) in 2009. Latter, he formed Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), which also merged with JD(U) in 2021. On 20 February 2023, he resigned from all positions of Janata Dal (United) and formed his own party called Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal due to his political problems with JD(U) & Nitish Kumar.
Babu Jagdeo Prasad, alternatively spelled as Jagdev Prasad and popularly known as Jagdev Babu, was an Indian politician and a member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly who served as Bihar's deputy chief minister in 1968 for four days in the Satish Prasad Singh cabinet. A socialist and a proponent of Arjak culture, he was the founder of Shoshit Dal and was a staunch antagonist and critic of India's caste system. He was nicknamed as the "Lenin of Bihar".
Mahagathbandhan (MGB), also known as Grand Alliance, is a coalition of political parties in the Eastern state of Bihar in India, formed ahead of the 2015 Vidhan Sabha elections in Bihar. The alliance consists of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Janata Dal (United), Indian National Congress (INC) and Left parties including Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation-CPIML (Liberation) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), with Nitish Kumar as the leader and Tejashwi Yadav as the chairperson. It is the ruling coalition government in Bihar.
Samrat Choudhary alias Rakesh Kumar is an Indian politician and Member of Bihar Legislative Council from the Bharatiya Janata Party. He has been the party president of BJP Bihar State unit from March 2023. He has also remained Member of Legislative Assembly and a minister in Government of Bihar in Rashtriya Janata Dal government. Chaudhary has been a former Vice President of BJP for the state of Bihar and currently elected for the second term as MLC in 2020 after his first term ended in 2019. In 2014 Samrat planned a split in Rashtriya Janata Dal by defecting thirteen MLAs as splinter group of the party. He later joined BJP. In 2022, he was selected as the Leader of Opposition in Bihar Legislative Council.
Mewalal Chaudhary was a leader of Janata Dal (United) and a minister for a brief period of time in the Nitish Kumar's cabinet. He was elected from the Tarapur assembly constituency to the Bihar Legislative Assembly in 2020 and was made a minister in charge of Education in the Bihar Government. However, he had to resign just three days after his appointment, amidst row over his alleged involvement in a corruption case, for which he was booked earlier. Chaudhary was an educationist, and prior to becoming a legislator, he was serving as Vice Chancellor of various agricultural universities in Bihar.
The Luv-Kush equation is a political term used in the context of the politics of Bihar, to denote the alliance of the agricultural Kurmi and the Koeri caste, which together constitutes approximately 15% of the state's population. The alliance of these two caste groups has remained the support base of Nitish Kumar, as against the MY equation of Lalu Prasad Yadav, which constitutes Muslims and the Yadavs. Caste consciousness and the quest for political representation largely drive the politics of Bihar. The political alliance of the Koeri and the Kurmi castes, termed the "Luv-Kush equation" was formed when a massive Kurmi Chetna Rally was organised by members of the Kurmi community in 1994 against the alleged casteist politics of Lalu Yadav, who was blamed by contemporary community leaders for promoting Yadavs in politics and administration.
Satyendra Narayan Kushwaha was an Indian politician from Bharatiya Janata Party, Bihar who served as the member of Bihar Legislative Council from 2012 till his death in 2018. He has served in various capacities in the organization of the BJP as the President of the BJYM, Bihar in 2005, State President of the BJP Kisan Morcha in 2007, State Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Bihar in 2009. He also served as the co-incharge of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Uttar Pradesh.
Maurya is a surname used by Kushwaha caste in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The community called Kushwaha are also known as Koeri, Kachhi, Haldiya Mauryans, Shakya, Murao and Saini in various parts of the state of Uttar Pradesh. They are second largest OBC group in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh after Yadavs and are one of the most politically organised peasant community in India after Jats, Yadavs and Kurmis. Unlike Jats, who have sizeable presence in many assembly constituencies, they are thinly distributed across different constituencies. In Rajasthan, due to lack of numerical preponderance in assembly constituencies like Jats, they are underrepresented in politics; however, in Bihar, they are a dominant caste, comprising approximately 9 percent of the population of state. They wield influence over 63 assembly constituencies and half a dozen Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.
The Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal is an Indian political party formally announced by Upendra Kushwaha on 20 February 2023, in Bihar after resignation from Janata Dal (United). The party's ideology is based on the ideals of Karpoori Thakur. The foundation of the party was preceded by a two day conference organised by Upendra Kushwaha in Patna, in which he invoked the participation of all the members of Mahatama Phule Samata Parishad, a socio-political organisation and his trusted aides in Janata Dal (United). In the backdrop of this conference the foundation of the party was announced.
Kushwaha is a surname used by people of Koeri caste in Bihar. The Kushwahas are also known as Maurya, Shakya, Saini in various parts of north India. As per one opinion, the Kushwaha surname is also common among members of Kachhi caste, who later merged with the Koeris to become a single homogeneous community. They are a dominant OBC community, who comprise about 9% of the population of state of Bihar.
Bharatiya Janata Party