Thread by @Crystal_x_Clear

🧵FROM “COALITION OF EXTREMES” OF CONGRESS TO “WIDER COALITION OF EXTREMES” OF NDA

BJP has re-engineered the Mandal politics of Bihar & brought the state into Post-Subaltern era. It may look similar to the Congress model of 1950–90, yet it is fundamentally different.
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The Congress system was a reflection of a Conservative Democracy in which it stitched together a “Coalition of Extremes,” where the so-called Upper Castes formed an alliance with the compliant Scheduled Castes along with Muslims, and ruled the State of Bihar as well as India.

The Congress ignored the rising yet assertive OBCs (especially Yadavs and Kurmis), and its upper-caste leadership resisted the inclusion of assertive OBC leaders within the Congress system. This formula served the party well for four decades. But by 1990, OBC politics had come of age, and Lalu Yadav seized power, displacing the Congress in Bihar.

Interestingly, Lalu replaced the Congress model of the “Coalition of Extremes” and built a subaltern coalition of OBC–Dalit–Muslim solidarity, and for the next two decades Bihar remained firmly under the grip of Mandal politics. The so-called upper castes lost their political stakes for the foreseeable future.

However, once Lalu lost power in 2005, Nitish and the BJP began working to dismantle this subaltern alliance as well. They understood its contradictions and weaknesses. Thus, In its place, they constructed another formation, a “WIDER COALITION OF EXTREMES.”

In this new extreme coalition, Upper Castes, Non-Yadav OBCs (Kurmi, Kushwaha), EBCs, and Non-Paswan Dalits (until Ram Vilas Paswan was alive) became the core. After Paswan’s demise, and due to sustained political outreach by the BJP, the Paswan–Musahar Dalit groups too eventually joined this Coalition of Extremes.

This massive coalition, spread uniformly across constituencies of Bihar, produced the fascinating political outcome witnessed in Bihar election 2025. Opposition leaders may invoke the “Vote Chori” narrative to save face, but the First-Past-the-Post system functions exactly this way.

Thus, Bihar has now entered a Post-Subaltern, Mandal (−1.0) era by assembling a “wider Coalition of Extremes” similar in structure to the Congress system, yet vastly different in its level of representation, democratisation, and political meaning. Combined with the developmental agenda, this model has the potential to take the state forward.