Chainpur (Bihar): Two days before Chainpur in Kaimur district votes in the final phase of Bihar’s assembly elections, the lack of cohesion of the Mahagathbandan (MGB) was on full display, primarily at the expense of Mukesh Sahni.The alliance had projected the inclusion of Sahni’s Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) as proof of its commitment to Extremely Backward Class (EBC) communities, hoping his presence could help mobilise voters from riverine communities such as Mallah, Bind and Nishad toward the MGB. He was even named the coalition’s deputy chief ministerial candidate. Yet on the ground, any ability Sahni had to do bring these voters in – built on his own stature as a leader – was being systematically undermined by the very alliance that elevated him. It was a situation he is intimately familiar with; he had to deal with much the same kind of treatment when he was in an alliance with the BJP.In this election, of the 15 seats given to the VIP, one was scrapped and another withdrew in favour of BJP’s Samrat Chaudhary. In five other seats, Mukesh Sahni’s candidates found themselves fighting their own alliance partners: one against the CPI, one against CPI(ML), one against Congress and two against the RJD.An alliance between a party representing the dominant OBC Yadavs and one speaking for the Nishad EBCs was always going to be difficult. But had it succeeded, it could have neutralised the BJP’s longstanding electoral strategy of amplifying social and political divisions between upper and lower backward castes for electoral gain. Nearly two decades after Nitish Kumar first foregrounded the political significance of extremely backward castes, such an alliance would have sent a powerful political signal.But this is not how things appear to be playing out, as the events in Chainpur showed.The local fish market in Muzaffarpur. Photo: Ananta JainOn his birthday, November 9, Tejashwi Yadav held a sabha in Bhabua block, where he garlanded Brij Kishore Bind, who is contesting on an RJD ticket from Chainpur. This felt like a stab in the back to supporters of the VIP, as Chainpur had been allocated to their candidate, Bal Govind Bind, state president of the VIP.On the eve of polling in Chainpur, the VIP’s district president Shivdas Bind held a press conference in Bhabua, seething with anger at what he felt was a betrayal by the party’s alliance partner, the RJD. He announced that VIP supporters would vote to defeat the RJD candidate in Chainpur, “Humarey saath chhal ho raha hai, Nishad samaj will not do ghulami of the RJD. RJD Mukesh Sahni ka kad chota kar raha hai, Gaura Bauram ke baad yahee humra dar tha (We’re being cheated. The Nishad community will not be slaves to the RJD. The RJD is diminishing Mukesh Sahni’s stature. This was our fear after Gaura Bauram).”Gaura Bauram, a constituency in Darbhanga district, became emblematic of the MGB’s dysfunction. In a series of bewildering moves, RJD supremo Lalu Yadav first handed the party symbol to Afzal Ali Khan. Then, after seat-sharing negotiations, the constituency was allotted to the VIP, which fielded Santosh Sahni, the party’s national president and Mukesh Sahni’s brother.What followed was political chaos masquerading as alliance coordination. The RJD asked Khan to withdraw his candidature. He refused. The deadline passed. Three days before polling, the RJD expelled Khan for six years from the party.The local fish market in Muzaffarpur. Photo: Ananta JainThat wasn’t all. On November 4, just two days before voting, Tejashwi Yadav tweeted support for the VIP candidate, and campaigned in Darbhanga with Mukesh Sahni. Hours later, in a dramatic reversal, Mukesh Sahni announced that his brother would step down in favor of Khan, calling it a “sacrifice for the larger battle to form an MGB government”.The BJP predictably had a field day with the episode. But more worrying for the MGB was the anger that erupted on social media, particularly among young people from the Mallah community who had been supporting VIP. Many saw the withdrawal of the party’s national president as a humiliating snub. It also opened the door for the BJP to introduce communal overtones. The suggestion was tailormade for them. An EBC candidate had been sacrificed to appease the Muslims.“Dostana sangharsh kya hota hai, ek doosrey ke peeth aur pait pe churrha bhokhna (What is a friendly fight? It’s stabbing each other in the back and stomach),” Sanjay Kewat, a Nishad leader, said, dismissing the alliance’s euphemistic term for what was, on the ground, a fierce intra-alliance contest.Despite damage control attempts, the alliance had managed to undermine the VIP close to voting day. When The Wire interviewed Sahni shortly before campaigning in Darbhanga with Tejashwi Yadav, he was buoyant. After his brother stepped down from Gaura Bauram, he maintained a brave face and spoke of sacrifice for the alliance, but the tone of his voice had noticeably changed. This was already a high-stakes battle for Sahni.Parties like the VIP derive their political power from their utility to larger formations, which depends entirely on their ability to demonstrate community support and mobilise related sub-castes. For such leaders, each election becomes a referendum on their very survival – rally the community or face the possibility of political extinction. This is a harsher calculus than what upper-caste leaders in the Congress or BJP face, where repeated electoral failures rarely end a political career.For Sahni, that has meant constant and immense pressure to prove he can command the Nishad vote even when he cannot command the support of his allies. This adds to his already difficult task. The politics of Bihar’s riverine castes reveal something of a paradox. Unlike in Uttar Pradesh, where the Ramjanmabhoomi movement consolidated more than 20 sub-castes under the Nishad umbrella using Ram, the temple and the iconography of Nishadraj to bind them to the BJP, in Bihar this religious mobilisation never took deep root. Here, the Nishad category remains fragmented, its constituent sub-castes less tethered to Hindu nationalist politics.Men gather around a Booth Level Officer at Vijay Chhapra during a local registration check, discussing elections. Photo: Ananta JainWhen Bihar’s Nishads vote for the NDA, they do so for different reasons. In Darbhanga, voters cite “Modiji and Nitishji”, speaking of development, not devotion. Bimal Devi in Donar Chowk, Ganga Sagar Colony, Darbhanga categorically said she would vote for Nitish Kumar, regardless of which party he’s with.This absence of religious consolidation cuts both ways. It offers an opening for leaders like Mukesh Sahni, who can gain traction even outside the BJP. But fragmentation also brings complexity. Sub-castes such as the Mallah, traditionally boatmen, the Bind, associated with fishing, the Beldar, linked to construction and masonry, and others, carry distinct titles and occupational identities, requiring distinct strategies. For Sahni, the surname itself becomes political capital – those who share it recognise him as “son of Mallah” more readily than a Bind might. The challenge, then, is not just mobilisation but consolidation across these internal boundaries.“I realised the fisherfolk of my community were being counted as different castes but we are together, we are all fisherfolk, depending on the river,” Sahni said in a 2015 interview, explaining his mission to consolidate these communities. “Together we are not just 2.5% of Bihar’s population, our numbers are considerably higher.”Sahni has a hold over the community in many pockets, especially in north Bihar where he hails from, but his success may depend on his ability to shift their votes away in areas where they support the JDU-BJP alliance.In regions like Bhojpur and Magadh, VIP has less traction. These areas have larger populations from the Bind community. A lone VIP flag on a house in Nihalpur, Jehanabad, suggested some penetration, but the owner, from the Bind community, said he would still vote for Nitish Kumar as the leader of the “dabaa hua log (oppressed people)”.A lone VIP and CPI(M) flag seen on a house in Nihalpur, Jehanabad district, Bihar. Photo: Ananta JainThis variation in support for the VIP across regions has given the BJP leeway in dealing with Sahni. He had joined the BJP-JDU alliance in 2020, after his party members said the RJD wasn’t acquiescing to their seat demands. Contesting 11 seats with the BJP that year, he won four, but three of those MLAs were subsequently inducted into the BJP.Two days before his announcement as deputy chief minister by the MGB in 2025, the BJP further dented his organisation when more than 50 party workers, including the national vice-president, district presidents and spokespersons, joined the BJP.The BJP has made sure that he has to contend with other strong Nishad candidates pitted against his own, like in Aurai, where VIP’s Bhogendra Sahni faces BJP’s Rama Devi, daughter-in-law of prominent Nishad leader Captain Jai Prakash Nishad from Muzaffarpur.Against this background the announcement as the MGB’s deputy chief minister candidate came as a boost for Sahni. “Aap logon ka toh leader CM, PM kai baar bana hai, humko bhee accha lagta hai kee koi malla ka beta uss position mein pahunchey (Your community’s leaders, have become CM and PM, many times, we also feel good that a Mallah’s son reaches that position),” says Pankaj Kumar Sahni, a young lawyer from Vijay Chhapra, a sprawling village that branches off from the main market in Muzaffarpur city.Women in the large Sahni basti of Vijay Chhapra village. Photo: Radhika BordiaIt has one of the largest concentrations of the Sahni community, with a population of 10,000 and traditionally high voter turnout. When we reached the village, late in the evening, people were huddled together in groups discussing the elections, giving us the opportunity to hear an array of views.In 2015, a meeting of around 200 Mallahs was held at the house of local resident Ashok Sahni to prepare for a Nishad Rally in Patna aimed at political empowerment. Mukesh Sahni was instrumental in organising it.“I was very small then, but since then Vijay Chhapra has been committed to Mukesh Sahni. He’s our neta, he will look out for us,” says Pankaj Kumar Sahni. “You see the Burhi Gandak river as you enter our village. When it floods, it’s mayhem. Mukesh Sahni understands what our problems are, as he is one of us. If he is given a proper chance, he will improve the situation,” says Nandu Sahni.The group discussed different Sahni and Nishad leaders from the region across party lines. “Mukesh Sahni wants to bring all our communities – Nishad, Beldar, Nonia, Kewat – all together so we become a powerful voice. That’s why the BJP used him but then tried to break him,” Pankaj continued.Inside one of the larger houses in the village, Urmila Devi Sahni and her sister-in-law Anita Devi Sahni said they have sympathy for Nitish Kumar and voted for him in the past but now with Mukesh Sahni as a deputy chief ministerial candidate, they will fully back the MGB.“Ek mallah ka beta udd raha hai toh accha lagega na (A Mallah’s son is flying so it feels good),” says Urmila Devi, referring specifically to visuals of Mukesh Sahni traveling in his helicopter. Pointing to her seven- and ten-year-old sons doing their homework, she adds: “Ab shiksha aa rahee hai humarey bacchon ko aur voh dekhenge ki humara neta humarey samaj ka hai toh voh bhi ek din urh saktey hain (Now education is coming to our children, and when they see that our leader is from our community, they too can dream of rising one day).”In one of the larger homes, Urmila Devi Sahni sits with her daughter as she does her homework. Photo: Ananta JainPankaj picks up on this, noting he’s been tracking the commentary on Mukesh Sahni. “There are no Mallahs in the media to defend Sahni, so the upper castes attack him for having a helicopter, call him corrupt. He is judged in a way no upper-caste neta is,” says Pankaj. And then he adds: “If the NDA loses the election, the political careers of BJP leaders won’t end. If the Mahagathbandhan loses these elections, it will not end Tejashwi Yadav’s political career, it will not end Rahul Gandhi’s career, but it could end Mukesh Sahni’s career.”Wrapped in a brown shawl, an older man interrupts Pankaj: “Bahut zyaada parh leeyo ho, abhee toh chunao toh hona hai aur dekhna, Mukesh Sahni ka naav hee tairega (You’ve studied too much. The elections still have to happen, and we’ll see, Mukesh Sahni’s boat will sail).”The exchange captures the tension at the heart of EBC leadership in Bihar. Leaders from extremely backward communities face additional burdens: an often dismissive upper-caste media that uses derogatory terms like chunavi mehendak, political parties that use them instrumentally with brutal efficiency, and the constant need to prove they carry their community’s support, a test rarely applied with such severity to leaders from dominant castes.Whether aligned with the BJP or the MGB, Mukesh Sahni has faced the same pattern: elevation followed by erosion. His utility is acknowledged through symbolic positions, minister in one government, deputy CM candidate in another, but when it comes to respecting the autonomy of his party, the seat-sharing arrangements, or even basic alliance discipline, larger parties have shown little restraint in undermining him.The question now is whether the symbolic power of the deputy CM announcement can overcome the practical damage of friendly fights, withdrawn candidates and public humiliations. For Sahni, it’s not just about winning seats, it’s about political survival itself.