Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal United (JDU) leader Nitish Kumar on Sunday sought the support of the Scheduled Castes (SC) for a campaign to seek “special category status” for the state.

“A campaign to demand special category status will be conducted. It will be a huge campaign. Support us in it. We will adopt Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar’s slogan “Shikshit bani, sangathit ho, sangharsh karo (become educated, unite and struggle) for it. He showed us how to tread the path of social justice. We will struggle and achieve special category status for Bihar,” Nitish said.

Nitish was speaking at Bhim Sansad — a congregation of the Dalits — organised by his party in Patna. A big crowd of people from different parts of the state attended the occasion.

The chief minister argued that the recently released report of the caste-based survey had shown a high incidence of poverty among all castes, including the general category castes, and the state government has decided to provide a grant of Rs 2 lakh to each of the poor families so that they could start some work of their own.

“We will need Rs 2.5 lakh crore for this. We have decided to spend Rs 50,000 crore every year for the next five years to remove poverty.

“However, we can achieve our aim in just two years if we get special category status. The ratio of funds is 60:40 for the Centre and the states in the centrally sponsored schemes, but the Centre never gives credit to the states,” he said.

Nitish added: “I have always served the Mahadalits and the minorities. If you think that more should be done, let me know about it. I keep roaming and working,” Nitish said. He also asked his officials to collect letters and petitions being waved by several people present among the crowd, so that he could go through them.

The special Bhim Sansad programme for the SC is being seen as an attempt by Nitish to woo them with the 2024 Lok Sabha and 2025 Assembly elections in mind as they form the third biggest chunk of voters in the state.

There is a perception in the JDU that the Dalits are gravitating away towards the BJP, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) of Chirag Paswan, and the Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular of former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. Nitish’s outbursts against Chirag and Manjhi have not helped either.

Moreover, Nitish, considered a master of social engineering, is attempting to garner the support of all castes not only to take on the BJP or the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the coming polls but also to strengthen the JDU’s position vis-à-vis allies like the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

Heaping praise on Ambedkar, the chief minister said he still meets his family members.

He also pointed out that he had instructed the JDU leaders and workers to follow the path shown by Mahatma Gandhi, Ram Manohar Lohia, Jayaprakash Narayan, Ambedkar and Karpoori Thakur.

Nitish added that his government increased the reservation for SC to 20 per cent after the caste-based survey highlighted that they constituted 19.65 per cent of the 13.07 crore population of the state. Similarly, the quota for the Scheduled Tribes was hiked to 2 per cent after finding that they were 1.68 per cent of the population.

Speaking on the occasion, JDU national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh aka Lalan Singh exhorted the audience to take a vow to ensure BJP-free India in 2024.