In Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad’s celebration of the Congress’s thumping victory in the Karnataka assembly elections lies a common thread, which connects not only the Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) but also the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).It’s interesting to note how Nitish and Lalu congratulated the grand old party, along with M.K. Stalin, who said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as an MP, misuse of the investigating agencies, imposition of Hindi, and rampant corruption led to the BJP’s humiliating defeat in the southern state.Congrats @INCIndia on spectacular winning of Karnataka. The unjustifiable disqualification of brother @RahulGandhi as MP, misusing premier investigative agencies against political opponents, imposing Hindi, rampant corruption have all echoed in the minds of Karnataka people while…— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) May 13, 2023However, while pushing for a united opposition, other leaders such as Trinamool Congress’s Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav acknowledged the Karnataka election outcome, without mentioning the Congress’s name.Also read: Why Congress’s Victory in Karnataka Is Particularly SignificantThe cause of social justiceExplaining what’s behind JD(U) and RJD’s ebullient reaction to Congress’s win in the Karnataka polls, veteran socialist leader and RJD’s national vice president Shivanand Tiwary said, “It is because the senior Karnataka Congress leader Siddaramaiah, who played a significant role in the Congress’s victory in the southern state, is a socialist by training. It’s the victory of the forces of social justice and secularism against the BJP’s rabid anti-Muslim agenda and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hyper-communal rhetoric.”Tiwary referred to the talk he had with Siddaramaiah, in New Delhi, ahead of the elections. He also told me about Siddaramaiah’s clout among the poor and weaker sections in Karnataka and his understanding of social justice.Political observers say that Nitish and Siddaramaiah practise the kind of socialism that empowers the disadvantaged sections by giving them quotas in jobs and in the political power structure.The Bihar chief minister has been consistent with his politics of social justice, despite running the government in alliance with the BJP in his state for about 17 years.In 2005, after forming the government with the BJP, Nitish reserved more seats for the people belonging to the extremely backward classes (EBCs) and the Mahadalits (the poor among Dalits) in the local bodies. He had also initiated a plethora of welfare schemes for them.Further, he has proposed to conduct a caste survey, which the Patna high court has stayed, saying that the move essentially means conducting a census, which is beyond the state government’s control. The government has moved the Supreme Court against the high court’s order.Therefore, what has led the Bihar leaders to celebrate the Congress’s victory with more gusto is the grand old party’s acceptance of ‘social justice’ as its main ideological plank. This is in contrast with the BJP’s appalling treatment of the people belonging to minority communities.The Congress’s acceptance of social justice as its ideology could be seen when Gandhi spoke about the distribution of wealth and power in proportion to the population of the castes concerned and the removal of the Supreme Court’s mandate of a 50% cap on the job reservation in Karnataka’s Kolar on April 17.The Congress leader has also raised concerns over the prime minister’s “friendship with the rich, the crony capitalists”. And, the Bharat Jodo Yatra championed the cause of the poor.Siddaramaiah’s attention to the causes of social justice and his experience in working with the disadvantaged sections in Karnataka proved to be the most potent tool to convince the Other Backward Classes and the Scheduled Castes, apart from the dominant Lingayats and Vokkaligas, from banking on the BJP too much based on its focus on the Lingayats and its harsh anti-Muslim agenda.Therefore, if one analyses the Karnataka election results from the perspective of social justice, it’d be easier to understand why Nitish and Lalu are happier than the others at the Congress’s victory against the BJP in the state.In addition, Nitish appears to be seeing an extension of his social justice formula in Karnataka, with hopes that the same will be expanded at the national level during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.Also read: Decentralised Set-up Becomes a Big Boon for CongressBihar-Karnataka tiesSiddaramaiah was in the Janata Dal with Lalu Prasad as its national president in the mid-1990s. In 1994, he was the deputy chief minister of Karnataka, with H.D. Devegowda as the chief minister of the state.Lalu had played a key role in Devegowda becoming the prime minister in 1996. Siddaramaiah, who was next to Devegowda in the party, had wished to be accepted as the successor to Devegowda.However, Devegowda formed his Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) after splitting from the Janata Dal in 1999. Over the years, he allegedly promoted his son H.D. Kumaraswamy at the cost of Siddaramaiah who switched over to the Congress in 2006. The Congress made him the chief minister of Karnataka (2013-18) and gave him the liberty to pursue his politics of social justice.Besides, it was the former Karnataka chief minister and socialist leader Ramakrishna Hegde who had given Lalu’s party the name of the ‘Rashtriya Janata Dal’ when the Janata Dal split. The book Gopalganj to Raisina: My Political Journey, co-authored by me, describes how Hegde had named the RJD.Nalin Verma is a senior journalist, media educator and independent researcher in social anthropology.