Bihar Diary: PM Modi Set To Puncture Rahul Gandhi's 'Jan Nayak' Pitch In High-Stakes Poll Battle

Last Updated:October 23, 2025, 19:58 IST

The Congress attempt to crown Rahul Gandhi with the Jan Nayak title appears more orchestrated than organic

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already hit back, accusing opponents of trying to 'steal' Karpoori Thakur’s legacy. File image/X

Election fever is raging across Bihar. The Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) has finally declared Tejashwi Yadav as its chief ministerial candidate, ending internal suspense. On the other side, the Democratic Alliance (NDA) has put to rest all speculation surrounding chief minister Nitish Kumar’s future by saying he will once again be the coalition’s face and, if victorious, will continue as CM. Bihar BJP leaders are loudly proclaiming from campaign stages, “From 2025 to 2030, Nitish again." If confusion still lingers anywhere, it is within the Congress-led bloc. Although the CM face issue has been settled, the Congress leadership—particularly the Gandhi family—appears distant from the Bihar battlefield. Rahul Gandhi, who actively toured the state during the voter list revision earlier this year, is now conspicuously missing. Priyanka Gandhi, who once famously rode a motorbike with her brother, is also absent from the action.

Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot has recently said both Rahul and Priyanka will eventually join the campaign, but for now, the NDA has seized the narrative. The alliance is particularly irked by attempts from the Congress camp to project Rahul Gandhi as a Jan Nayak (People’s Leader)—a title historically reserved for Bihar’s first extremely backward class (EBC) chief minister, Karpoori Thakur. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already hit back, accusing opponents of trying to “steal" Thakur’s legacy.

Jan Nayak Experiment

On October 24, PM Modi will visit Karpoorigram in Samastipur district—the birthplace of Karpoori Thakur. After meeting Thakur’s family, he will address a massive public rally at the Samastipur airport ground, marking his first Bihar campaign event since the election dates were announced. Earlier this month, while inaugurating the Karpoori Thakur Skill University virtually, Modi said that “no social media team made Karpoori Thakur a Jan Nayak—the people of Bihar did," urging citizens to “stay alert" against those trying to “appropriate" that honour.

The symbolism is deliberate. Modi himself comes from an extremely backward community, and according to Lokniti-CSDS data, 58% of EBC voters supported the NDA in the 2020 elections. Bihar’s 2022-23 caste survey shows EBCs constitute 36.01% of the state’s 63.13% backward population—making them a decisive force.

The Legacy of Karpoori Thakur and Competing Claims

Karpoori Thakur, a barber by caste, recognised EBC deprivation long before the Mandal Commission. As CM, he implemented the Mungeri Lal Commission report, splitting the backward quota into two parts—18% for EBCs and 7% for OBCs. In the 1990s, Nitish Kumar emerged as the voice of this section and later, as CM, institutionalised EBC representation: 20% reservation in panchayats and later 25% in job quotas after the caste survey—though the latter remains pending in court. Interestingly, Karpoori was also the first to impose prohibition in Bihar, a policy resurrected by Nitish decades later.

By contrast, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, twice CM and now convicted in the Rs 1,000-crore fodder scam and facing multiple corruption cases, still claims to be Thakur’s true political heir. His son Tejashwi, now the Grand Alliance’s CM face and owner of assets worth over Rs 8 crore, is being hailed as the “next Jan Nayak" by MP Pappu Yadav, a claim critics are calling farcical.

An anecdote from the past illustrates Thakur’s modesty. Senior journalist Surendra Kishore once recalled that when Thakur felt hungry during an assembly session, he sent a note to then MLA Lalu Yadav asking to borrow his jeep to go home for lunch. Lalu replied on a slip— “My jeep has no diesel. You have been CM twice; why not buy your own car?" According to the late journalist Sankarshan Thakur in The Brothers Bihari, Lalu would even jokingly call him “Kapti Thakur" (deceitful Thakur) in private.

The ‘Jan Nayak’ Debate and Political Irony

The Congress attempt to crown Rahul Gandhi with the Jan Nayak title appears more orchestrated than organic. In July, author Rakesh Pandey released a book titled Jan Nayak Rahul Gandhi. Soon after, the Congress uploaded a campaign video glorifying Gandhi as the voice of the powerless, farmers, workers, women, and youth—branding him “the nation’s hope". During his Bihar visit, Rahul unveiled a 10-point “EBC Justice Pledge", promising to raise EBC quotas in panchayats from 20% to 30%, earmark government contracts worth up to Rs 25 crore for them, distribute land to the landless, and remove the 50% reservation cap.

Yet, as political observers note, such promises do not automatically make anyone a Jan Nayak. Questions will inevitably be raised about what the Congress or the Gandhi family actually did for EBCs during their years in power. PM Modi, known for his sharp electoral attacks, is expected to remind voters of that record when he takes the stage in Samastipur.

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