Caste still matters in Bihar, reveals JDU-RJD-Congress candidates' list

The Janata Dal United-Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress Mahagathbandhan on Wednesday announced its list of 242 candidates for the five-phase Bihar Assembly elections. The candidate for Rajgir which will be contested by the JDU is yet to be announced.

Keeping their vote bank in mind, the Mahagathbandhan list has 56% candidates from the other backward castes, 16% Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, 16% forward castes and 14% Muslims.

The list once again revealed that caste continues to play a major role in the political arena of Bihar.

Here's a look at the caste/community wise breakup of the candidates' list in numbers:

General: 39

Bhumihar – 13

Rajpur – 12

Brahman – 9

Kayastha – 5

OBC: 109

Yadav – 64

Kushwaha – 22

Kurmi – 16

Baniya – 3

Vaishya – 3

Goswami – 1

Extremely Backward Class (EBC): 25

Scheduled Caste:

Dalit – Paswan – 11

Mahadalit:

Ravidas - 15

Pasi – 6

Musahar – 4

Chamar – 1

Dhobi – 1

Adivasi – 1

Scheduled Tribe: 1

Muslim – 33, of which 3 are from the

3 from EBC category