BJP invokes Mauryan kings for Kushwaha votes in Bihar

The Iconic Mauryan emperors - Chandragupta Maurya and Ashoka the Great - may have earned their place in history because of their valour, administrative acumen and peace policy but they are being talked about these days in Bihar for an altogether different reason: caste.

Ahead of the state Assembly elections to be held next year, the BJP has hailed the famous rulers of the Magadh empire as belonging to the Kushwaha caste, a dominant OBC community, which account for about 9 per cent of the total voters in Bihar. The party has begun an exercise to make the Kushwahas - also known as Koeris - aware that they are the descendants of none other than Chandragupta and Ashoka who had ruled Patliputra about 2,300 years ago.

This is despite the fact that there is hardly any confirmation in the history books that the Mauryans were the ancestors of the modern-day Kushwahas. Some historians have only described Chandragupta as being born in a lower caste.

But that did not deter the Bihar BJP to link the great rulers with the Kushwaha community in its pursuit of power in Bihar. All the top leaders in the party sang paeans to the Mauryan kings at the Chandragupta Rajyarohan Samaroh (coronation ceremony) in Patna, organised under the aegis of an outfit called All India Rashtrawadi Kushwaha Parishad, on Tuesday.

The party also has plans to celebrate the birth anniversary of Ashoka on May 3 next year on a grand scale and will install a statute of Chandragupta if it comes to power in Bihar.

Inaugurating the ceremony, former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said the people of Bihar had given 55 years to the Congress, 15 to RJD and one-and-ahalf years to the JD(U). "Now, they should bring the BJP to power," he said. Sushil said the Kushwahas were the descendants of Chandragupta and Ashoka and they should resolve to vote the BJP to power to restore the glory that their community had during the reign of Mauryan emperors.

The BJP leaders said Narendra Modi had given due honour to Kushwaha community by inducting Rashtriya Lok Samata Party president Upendra Kushwaha in his ministry. They also likened the JD(U) government to the regime of the last king of Nand dynasty Dhananand, which was overthrown by Chandragupta. Surajnandan Prasad Kushwaha, the party's general secretary who also happens to be the president of the All India Rashtrawadi Kushwaha Parishad, said the descendants of the Mauryan king would mete out similar treatment to the state government in Bihar.