Rahul will engage with OBC, EBC, SC, and minority students in Darbhanga on Thursday to kick off the Shiksha Nyay Samvad campaign. He will also see the movie “Phule” in Patna with kids from these groups.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will interact with over 2,000 students from Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs), and minority communities on Thursday at the Ambedkar hostel in Darbhanga, Bihar. The event marks the launch of the Congress’s Shiksha Nyay Samvad (Discussion on Justice in Education) campaign. Gandhi will also watch Phule, a Hindi film on social reformers Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule, with students at a theatre in Patna.
With Bihar gearing up for crucial Assembly elections in October-November 2025, Gandhi has been visiting the state monthly since February. He has attended three Samvidhan Bachao (Save the Constitution) events in Patna, emphasizing the Congress’s narrative of countering the BJP’s alleged attacks on the Constitution. This messaging, part of the Opposition INDIA alliance’s 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign, resonated with marginalized communities.
Gandhi has consistently highlighted discrimination and under-representation of backward classes and vulnerable groups, advocating for a nationwide caste census as a cornerstone for social justice and policy-making. Following the BJP-led Centre’s recent announcement to include caste enumeration in the upcoming population Census, attention will focus on how Gandhi addresses this in Bihar, which conducted a pioneering caste survey in 2022-23. Congress leaders indicate Gandhi will claim credit for pushing the caste census agenda and renew calls for lifting the 50% reservation cap, established by the Supreme Court in the 1992 Indra Sawhney vs Union of India case. Notably, in June 2024, the Patna High Court struck down Bihar’s attempt to raise reservations from 50% to 65% in government jobs and educational institutions.
Congress spokesperson Gyan Ranjan Gupta shared details of Gandhi’s Bihar program, stating, “Around 2,000 students from classes 11, 12, and undergraduate courses will join Rahul Gandhi at Darbhanga’s Ambedkar hostel for a live interaction. He will listen to their concerns and respond.” Gupta highlighted that Gandhi will address delays in scholarships for OBC, EBC, Dalit, and minority students, particularly the mismanagement of post-matric scholarship schemes for Dalits, which offer fee waivers for higher education. The Congress also plans to raise issues like poor implementation of the Right to Education Act by private schools and the need for better educational infrastructure, including more residential schools.
Congress’s Strategy in Bihar
The Congress has struggled in Bihar since losing power in 1990. Its vote share plummeted to 11.06% in the 2000 Assembly polls, dropping further to 6.1% with nine seats in 2005. In 2010, during Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s peak popularity, the party secured 8.4% votes but only four seats—its lowest tally then. As part of an alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in 2015, the Congress won 27 seats with 6.8% votes. In 2020, it garnered 9.6% votes and 19 seats.
To bolster its presence, the Congress is focusing on EBCs and Dalits, recently appointing Dalit leader Rajesh Kumar as Bihar Congress president, replacing upper-caste leader Akhilesh Prasad Singh, to promote non-upper caste representation. The party has been allied with the RJD since 2005, except in 2010, and aims to expand its voter base through targeted outreach to marginalized communities.
