NEW DELHI: In Bihar’s charged election season, everyone wants to be a 'Jan Nayak'.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the NDA’s campaign earlier this month by visiting Karpoori Gram, the native village of socialist icon Karpoori Thakur, and paying floral tribute at his memorial, it was more than a symbolic gesture. It was the first clear sign that this election would be fought as much over legacy as leadership. On the other hand, as Rahul Gandhi remained missing in Bihar in the earlier phase of campaign, Congress compensated by flooding social media with clips of his 'Voter Adhikar Yatra,' projecting him as the new Jan Nayak who walks among the people. Similarly, RJD declared
Tejashwi Yadav, who was named the CM face of the Mahagathbandha, the "nayak" of Bihar.
Suddenly, Jan Nayak, once a term reserved for a humble man who cycled from village to village, has become Bihar’s most contested political title. And as parties scramble to claim it, the spotlight has swung back to the man who first embodied it -- Karpoori Thakur, the OG Jan Nayak whose life and politics still define Bihar's moral imagination.
The Bharat Ratna conferred on Thakur last year only amplified that revival, but as Uday Chandra, writer and a field-based researcher of Indian politics and society, points out, "Karpoori Thakur never truly left Bihar’s consciousness. He represents something deeper -- a moral compass in a state where politics has become transactional."
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The man who rode a bicycle into historyKarpoori Thakur's life reads like a fable, the rise of a man from the margins who became the face of a movement. Born in 1924 in Bihar's Samastipur district to the Nai (barber) community, which currently makes up barely 1.6% of the state’s population, Thakur's journey was anything but ordinary.
Karpoori Thakur never truly left Bihar’s consciousness. He represents something deeper — a moral compass in a state where politics has become transactional.
Uday Chandra, writer and researcher
"He was among Bihar’s most remarkable post-independence leaders — a socialist who rose from humble origins to become chief minister twice," says Chandra. "He campaigned door to door, village to village, on a humble bicycle."
Thakur's politics fused Gandhian simplicity with Lohiaite egalitarianism. As chief minister, his landmark decision in 1978 to implement job reservations for backward classes, more than a decade before the Mandal Commission recommendations, remains one of the boldest assertions of social justice in modern India. It was also one of the most controversial. The move triggered protests from forward castes, but for millions of backward and extremely backward classes (EBCs), it was the first time the state acknowledged their claim to dignity and opportunity.
"He was known as Jan Nayak because people saw in him someone who lived their struggles," Chandra explains.
The origin storyTo understand Bihar’s 2025 elections, one must first understand Karpoori Thakur's ideological DNA. His era birthed a new grammar of power, where caste was not hidden beneath euphemisms but spoken of as politics of representation.
"Karpoori Thakur is the origin point of Bihar’s OBC or peasant assertion," says Chandra. "The Lohiaite socialist tradition -- from Karpoori to Lalu to Nitish -- challenged the dominance of a small coterie of 'forward castes' and recast the region’s politics around social justice."
Today, when every alliance invokes the vocabulary of empowerment, it is Thakur’s language they borrow. His vision of 'samajik nyay' (social justice) forms the bedrock on which Bihar’s identity politics rests. The Mahagathbandhan, led by RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, sees him as their ideological ancestor. The NDA, led by Nitish Kumar and the BJP, positions him as a shared OBC icon -- a figure who transcends caste boundaries.
"Invoking Thakur today lets parties reconnect with that social justice narrative, even if its ethical edge has dulled," Chandra observes. "For the NDA, it is a way to court non-Yadav OBCs and appear inclusive. For the Mahagathbandhan, it’s about reclaiming authenticity, tracing their lineage directly from the social justice movements of the 1970s."
In short, everyone wants a piece of Karpoori.
Symbolism over numbersThe irony is that Thakur himself came from a community too numerically insignificant to form a vote bank. The Nais, or barbers, constitute just over 1.6% of Bihar’s population. Yet his political afterlife has grown far beyond that statistic.
"In Bihar, symbolism goes farther than mere numbers," Chandra says. "Thakur’s appeal transcended his own sub-caste. He came to represent a politics of dignity for all backward classes, especially the Extremely Backward Castes (EBC)."
It was, in fact, under Thakur’s government in the late 1970s that the crucial distinction between OBCs and EBCs was institutionalised, a policy that continues to shape Bihar’s electoral calculus today. EBCs, estimated at around 36% of the state’s population, are now considered the most decisive voting bloc.
By invoking Thakur, both alliances are hoping to tap into that moral and emotional reservoir. The NDA projects him as an inclusive figure in its Hindu OBC outreach, while the Mahagathbandhan paints him as the ideological ancestor of their Lohiaite socialism.
As Chandra puts it, "His own community matters less than the broad social coalition he came to embody."
Between dignity and developmentYet nostalgia alone doesn't win elections. Bihar today is a far cry from the Bihar of Thakur's era. Migration, unemployment, and the decay of public education dominate the concerns of young voters.
So, does invoking Thakur resonate beyond rhetoric?
"Material aspirations have grown, but they are not separate from the politics of dignity for most Biharis," Chandra argues. "For many young voters, Thakur's name still evokes honesty and equality -- qualities largely absent from today’s transactional politics."
Invoking Thakur today lets parties reconnect with that social justice narrative, even if its ethical edge has dulled.
Uday Chandra, writer and researcher
But he adds a warning: "If parties merely use his image without addressing unemployment, migration, and the collapse of public education, the symbolism will ring hollow. The challenge is to connect his ideals of opportunity and dignity for the marginalized with a credible development agenda."
In essence, Karpoori Thakur can only take Bihar so far. Unless parties build roads, literal and metaphorical, his legacy risks becoming a prop rather than a promise.
Who owns the legacy?The race to claim the "OG Jan Nayak" mantle has become a defining subplot of Bihar election 2025. Each of the major players, Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi Yadav, and the BJP, sees in Karpoori Thakur a reflection of their own political aspiration, albeit refracted through convenience. So who can actually claim his legacy?
"Nitish Kumar inherits Thakur’s EBC base and pragmatic style of governance," Chandra notes adding, "But his shifting alliances have eroded his credibility."
"Tejashwi Yadav channels the Lohiaite spirit of social justice and youth aspiration," he continues, "but is burdened by the dynastic excesses that Thakur abhorred."
As for the BJP, it seeks to fold Thakur into a broader Hindu OBC narrative, which sits uneasily with his secular and socialist ethos. "Perhaps the truest homage to Karpoori Thakur," Chandra says, "would be to revive his moral politics of simplicity, integrity, and courage -- values now in short supply across the political spectrum."
Meanwhile, Thakur's granddaughter Jagriti is contesting in Morwa, Samastipur from Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj party.
The moral centre In a state long caricatured as a theatre of caste arithmetic and power flips, Karpoori Thakur stands out as something purer -- a reminder that politics can be grounded in ethics. His face on election posters is not just nostalgia; it is a yearning for decency in public life.
As the 2025 campaign intensifies and Bihar gets ready to vote in phase 1 on November 6, parties may continue to fight over his legacy, each twisting his memory to fit their pitch. Yet, in the eyes of many voters, the OG Jan Nayak remains untouched -- the barber’s son who dared to dream of equality, the leader who rode a bicycle instead of a motorcade, the chief minister who refused to compromise his ideals for convenience.
Nearly four decades after his death, Karpoori Thakur may once again decide Bihar’s future, not through his vote, but through his vision.
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