Mumbai, May 9: In a bid to woo Dalit voters ahead of 2019 Assembly elections, political parties are coming up with different tactics. On the similar lines, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has recently announced of giving Rs 1 lakh to candidates from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC-ST) who would clear the civil services recruitment prelim exams successfully.

In Bihar, Dalits alone make up about 15 percent of the total population. The Chief Minister in a surprise move earlier, had pulled all its plug and ditched the age-old alliance with the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) party of Lalu Prasad Yadav and formed a new government with Bharatiya Janta Party. CM Nitish is trying to reach all Dalit voters who seem to be upset with the party move.

He is also trying to ensure that the anger building up among Dalits against BJP does not scorch the JDS and hamper the party politics in the upcoming assembly elections which are due in 2019. Also, as the opposition parties are trying to cash in on the Dalit outrage ahead of 2019 elections, the Bihar Chief Minister is trying all possible ways to impress the voters.

According to the news report in NDTV, sources from Nitish government said about 1,500 students from the two reserved categories(sc/st) clear the first stage of the recruitment examination by the state-level public service commission. An average of 200 more students from these communities clears the civil services preliminary examination conducted by UPSC. The preliminary examinations are aimed at screening out the non-serious candidates; those who make the grade are put through a tougher, detailed examination and an interview.

The report also stated that Nitish Kumar cabinet, Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh has also decided to provide 15 kg of grain per month (rice and wheat) to every student staying in the hostels meant for SCs, STs, Extremely Backward Castes, Other Backward Classes and the minority communities.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 09, 2018 11:35 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).