Nitish Kumar's Women Job Quota: A Strategic Move Ahead of Bihar Polls

Assembly elections are going to be held in Bihar in the upcoming November-December, in view of which the ruling and opposition parties have started laying their political chessboard. In the latest decision, the BJP-JD(U) Nitish government of the state has declared 35 percent reservation for women in government jobs as mandatory for women who are permanent residents of the state. Earlier, the doors of jobs were open for women from other states as well. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is considered popular among women. There are many reasons for this. Firstly, he had tried to provide relief to domestic women by imposing complete prohibition in the state. This decision of the Chief Minister was highly appreciated by the women of the state. This increased the chances of their family life becoming easier.

There was a wave of happiness among the women of the poor section due to prohibition, but the other aspect is that it also increased illegal liquor smuggling in the state and the number of people dying after drinking poisonous liquor also increased in the state. The Nitish government tried to find a solution to this problem through the police administration, in which it got only partial success. It is also true that illegal liquor is still being smuggled into the state and the administration has not been able to stop it completely. It is considered very difficult to eradicate such an evil from the root in any society. Nevertheless, the women of the state welcomed the Chief Minister's announcement of liquor ban wholeheartedly. As far as reservation for women in government jobs is concerned, the Chief Minister took this decision in 2016. At that time Nitish Babu was the head of the Mahagathbandhan government of JD(U)-Congress and Lalu ji's party RJD.

Earlier in the state assembly elections held in 2015, this alliance had got huge success against BJP. In these elections, the women of the state supported Nitish Babu. Since then, the women vote bank is considered to be Nitish Babu's. Nitish Babu has been the Chief Minister of the state for the last 20 years since 2005, although the coalition of the ruling government in the state keeps changing. Nitish Babu is sometimes in power with the BJP and sometimes with the Congress and Lalu ji's party. Therefore, whatever decisions the Bihar government has taken in the public interest in the last 20 years, the credit for all of them can be given to Nitish Babu.

In 2022, he conducted a caste survey in Bihar. At that time Nitish Babu was the Chief Minister with the support of Lalu ji's party. Although Lalu ji's party tried to take credit for this survey, Nitish Babu made it clear that his participation in this decision cannot be ignored because he has the widespread support of the extremely backward class of the state. It was clear in this caste survey that 36 percent of the people in Bihar belong to the extremely backward class. After the caste survey, the Nitish government also took some necessary steps to help the people of the poor class and also decided to give help of two lakh rupees to the extremely poor families. Thus Nitish Babu was again successful in garnering the sympathy of this class. As far as the opposition is concerned, it is running a massive campaign against the revision of voter lists by the Election Commission and in this context it also organized a Bihar Bandh on Wednesday. There are also reports of this bandh being successful, which is creating a situation of public versus Election Commission in this election state, but Nitish Babu is remaining neutral in this controversy and he is not opening his mouth on the voter revision process. This shows that the Chief Minister is weighing the equations of political loss and gain of this incident and is waiting to say his point at the right time, but to divert the attention of the people, especially women, from this controversy, he has heated up the issue of women with permanent residence in government jobs. Obviously, this will strengthen Nitish Babu's women vote bank. Till now, the system was that women of any state could get jobs in Bihar under 35 percent women reservation. Especially in the field of education, women from outside Bihar also got a good number of jobs in the teaching jobs.

Now all these jobs will be reserved only for women who are permanent residents of Bihar. This will also reduce the casteism that is prevalent in the politics of the state because women of every caste will be considered eligible for reservation. This will help the BJP in entering the electoral fray as this party is basically considered a party of the upper castes. The BJP contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the JD(U) in which it got a great success. Therefore, the ruling party and the opposition are seen placing their pieces very carefully in the chessboard of the assembly elections.