A prominent leader of the Dhanuk caste (listed as EBC in Bihar), Ajay Rai from Bhagalpur, also joined JD (U) on the occasion. The JD (U) claimed he supported former poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party. Recently, former JD (U) vice president Mangani Lal Mandal was inducted into the RJD by party leader Tejashwi Yadav. With the help of Mandal, Tejashwi is trying to woo the EBC vote bank. The EBC support is considered crucial for getting and retaining power in Bihar. This has been Nitish’s core vote bank for the last 20 years. In the previous Lok Sabha elections, he had inducted Mukesh Sahni into the alliance to make inroads into the Mallah vote bank.Mandal’s influence is believed to be in Madhubani, Darbhanga, Samastipur and Muzaffarpur of north Bihar. He has been an MLA and MP from Jhanjharpur. This time, RJD celebrated former chief minister Karpoori Thakur’s birth anniversary in Madhubani district’s Phulparas on Friday, considered as the ‘Karmabhhomi’ of Thakur, who was also from the EBC category. In the 2020 assembly election, the grand alliance could not perform well in Samastipur, Darbhanga, Madhubani and Muzaffarpur. While the RJD won 11, Congress and CPI (M) won a seat each in Muzaffarpur and Samastipur.
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