Role Of Caste In Elections

The coverage of the Bihar elections abounds with considerations on caste, defined as
the go-to variable to understand both alliance's strategies and voters' alignments.
Indeed, both main alliances devised mutually exclusive social and political alliances,
and, contrary to recent electoral campaigns in other states, spare no efforts publicising
the promises they make to specific groups.
The first trend that one sees is that traditional vote bank support towards the so-called
caste based parties they are associated with is gradually eroding. In recent years, in
Bihar, more Yadavs vote for non-RJD candidates than in the past. The earlier
alignments between certain types of castes and certain parties fielding candidates from
the same background have given way to a far more diversified and localized electoral
strategy, consisting in building local alliances between groups according to their local
demographic and political power balance.
But as parties grew more "inclusive" — out of necessity — the support among their core
group eroded.
The second misconception that one sees frequently is the idea that caste operates on
its own, irrespective of other dimensions. From the parties' point of view, identifying
which caste they should ally with locally, and distributing the tickets accordingly, is only
the beginning of the process.
One has to identify the right candidate within the targeted groups. In that regard, caste
is only one aspect of a candidate's "winnability". The capacity to garner support across
caste barriers, the resources they can mobilise, their connections to local power
wielders and business interests, and the local history of inter caste relations are all
aspects that are taken into account while selecting candidates.
If one looks at the election from the candidates' perspective, the outlook is grim.
Elections in India are very competitive but in more diverse ways than it seem at first
sight. As a candidate, one has to compete not only with other parties' candidates, but
also within their own party and often within their own social group or community, in order
to get the ticket in the first place.
At the same time, campaign costs are ever increasing. Not only one needs to spend
resources to get into the fray, but one also needs to outspend their competitors. And

Role Of Caste In Elections 1

 once they're elected (if they are), they enter into a world of daily expenditures, where
every interaction with constituents necessitates the spending of resources of some kind
or another.
One wonders then what is the rationality of competing when getting a ticket is hard,
winning uncertain, the whole enterprise costly no matter what happens and if in
addition, a candidate is nearly certain to be kicked out after one term, either by voters or
more likely so by his or her own party, as a casualty of anti-incumbency prevention,
faction wars or due to pre-electoral seat sharing agreements

Role Of Caste In Elections 2