Since August 2022, when Nitish changed sides and left the NDA to join the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress in the Grand Alliance (GA), both Choudhary and Vijay Sinha were relentless in their attack. While Choudhary was a minister in the previous NDA government, Sinha was the Speaker.

After Sushil Modi, who was deputy CM for nearly 11.5 years with Nitish, the BJP appointed Tarkeshwar Prasad, who belongs to the Vaishya community (from the OBC category) and Renu Devi (who belongs to a community that falls within the Extremely Backward Classes category) as Nitish’s deputies.

This time, around, it has come up with new faces.

To compensate the EBC communities, the BJP made veteran Prem Kumar, who was dropped from the cabinet the last time around, a minister. Hindustani Awam Morcha’s Santosh Kumar Suman, who belongs to a Scheduled Caste community and is the son of former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, also got a post to set the equation right. Suman had resigned from the GA government earlier after differences cropped up with Nitish Kumar.

“BJP is a party that believes in ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas aur Sabka Vishwas.' We don’t view everything from the caste point of view, but our party does try to keep the social equation right to give everyone equal opportunity. Our goal is good governance and development for all. Whatever progress Bihar has made in different fields is largely due to the NDA government since 2005 and we have to continue with that,” said deputy CM Sinha.

Political analyst Nawal Kishor Choudhary, however, said that caste is a reality no political party can afford to ignore. The BJP has gone in for social engineering to set its equation right.

It will be apparent more with the expansion of the cabinet in the days to come, with younger and newer faces from different castes to counter the “dynastic politics of RJD” that Nitish recently attacked, he said.

“There is no [constitutional] provision of deputy CM, but these practices are in vogue these days. BJP has made an OBC and an upper caste and compensated the EBC by giving Prem Kumar a cabinet berth as well as the Bharat Ratna to the late socialist leader Karpoori Thakur. No matter what, the BJP also knows Bihar’s reality. It has forward castes by its side, but it does not want to take any chances by ignoring them at a time when the RJD would like to play with caste reservation and caste surveys. Basically, it all boils down to a balancing act,” he added.

Former director of AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies, DM Diwakar said that while caste was a big factor for any party, including the BJP, getting social engineering right in Bihar’s politics was a complex affair. In Choudhary and Sinha’s cases, other factors were at play.

“The selection of two aggressive leaders as deputy CMs also indicates an attempt to balance Nitish and make a fresh beginning to strengthen the organisation in a state where it has struggled. In the past, deputy CMs of the BJP ended up being subservient to Nitish. It is also the BJP’s way of stamping its authority by rewarding its aggressive leaders, which Nitish would not normally like, but has no option but to accept. There has been a feeling in the BJP that Nitish Kumar did not allow the BJP to grow in Bihar, as it did in neighbouring states, for his own advantage,” he added.

“The organisation decides it on various parameters, social equation being just one of them. This is also an indication of a gradual but definite generational shift in the BJP to give the younger lot a chance. It has happened in other states also,” a senior BJP leader, pleading anonymity, said.