PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, in a bid to better the lot of "Dalits among Dalits" with an eye on the subsequent political gains, carved up a special Mahadalit category some time ago. But when it came to ticket distribution for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the JD(U) leadership completely ignored Mahadalits while BJP gave only one ticket to them.

The NDA government in Bihar, despite the objections raised by the National Commission of Scheduled Castes, had constituted the Mahadalit Commission on September 20, 2007. With this, 18 of the 22 sub-castes of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) category were brought under the purview of the commission, leaving out four -- the quartet of Chamar, Dhobi, Paswan and Pasi -- as the latter were socially and politically more powerful of the whole Dalit lot.

The classification of 18 sub-castes as Mahadalits was apparently a move to consolidate the Mahadalit votebank, keeping in mind the Lok Sabha elections of 2009. The Mahadalits comprise 31 per cent of the 15-16 per cent of the SC population in the state, and this polarisation would, without doubt, make them vote en bloc for candidates of their choice. The quartet, incidentally, comprise a prominent 69 per cent of the SC population.

The lists of 25 JD(U) candidates and 15 of BJP in Bihar, have apparently left the Mahadalits in the lurch.

The JD(U) has given four seats to the SCs Purnamasi Ram from Gopalganj, veteran Socialist Ram Sundar Das from Hajipur, Maheshwar Hazari from Samastipur and Bhudev Chaudhary from Jamui. Interestingly, all four candidates are either Chamars, Paswan or Pasi. Sadly, not a single Mahadalit figures in the JD(U) list.

The BJP, with 15 seats in its kitty, has fielded only one Mahadalit Hari Manjhi, a Musahar from the Naxal-affected constituency of Gaya. State BJP spokesperson Vinod Narayan Jha says, "BJP has given one seat to Mahadalits in an effort to not only bring Mahadalits into the mainstream, but to also ensure that they too have a say in the political decision-making process."

However, JD(U) national spokesperson Shivanand Tiwari claimed the JD(U) has also fielded a "Mahadalit", Bhudev Chaudhary, from the reserved seat of Jamui. State JD(U) president Rajiv Ranjan Singh also said, "The JD(U) has fielded a Mahadalit Bhudev Chaudhary." Incidentally, Bhudev belongs to the Pasi sub-caste and does not find a place in the exhaustive Mahadalit list.

Have the weak Mahadalits deliberately been left out in the scheme of others, or is this political expediency.