The Grand Democratic Secular Front (GDSF) was a coalition of political parties in the Indian state of Bihar formed on 8 October 2020 after the merger of the constituents of the United Democratic Secular Alliance and a three party front. The coalition was formed in the wake of the 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election and consisted of 6 parties.[2][3][4][5]
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen announced an alliance with Samajwadi Janata Dal Democratic ahead of the 2020 elections in Bihar. RLSP, BSP and PSP declared another alliance for upcoming Bihar election. However these two separate coalition of political parties merged and formed a brand new alliance named Grand Democratic Secular Front and declared Upendra Kushwaha as its Chief Ministerial candidate for Bihar.[6][7] According to its leaders, the alliance was forged to converge the Dalit, OBC and Muslim votes.[8]
The bloc's ticket distribution plan gave due weightage to caste and communal representation in various constituencies. It was decided that the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party will contest on 104 out of 243 seats of the Bihar Assembly while Bahujan Samaj Party was to contest on 80 seats. The other members like AIMIM and Samajwadi Janata Dal were given 24 and 25 seats respectively while the minor players like Suhaldev Bhartiya Samaj Party and Janwadi Party Socialist were to contest 5-5 seats each.[9]
In the first phase of the election RLSP contested on 42 seats.[10] Relying upon its vote base which is Kushwaha caste, RLSP fielded 40% Kushwaha candidates in the elections . The Grand Democratic Secular Front of which RLSP was a constituent member relied primarily upon the votes of castes like Kushwahas, Ravidasis, and Muslims. RLSP in the first phase of elections contested a total of 42 seats amongst which it gave ticket to 17 candidates of Kushwaha caste while its ally AIMIM placed its candidates in Muslim dominated areas of Bihar.[11] Similarly in the list of its 37 candidates in the second phase also Koeri candidates were dominant accounting for 18 seats.[12]
The Grand Democratic Secular front however failed to perform as it claimed earlier in the Bihar Assembly Elections of 2020. Its only success was in obtaining six seats, five of which were won by AIMIM in the Muslim dominated Simanchal region of Bihar. The Bahujan Samaj Party also won one seat but the RLSP, the principal political party of the alliance performed badly and failed to win any seats.[13]
^"जाति की राजनीति:बिहार विधानसभा चुनाव में 3 चरण में 100 से अधिक सीटों पर लड़ेगी रालोसपा, 40% होंगे कुशवाहा प्रत्याशी". Dainik Bhaskar. Archived from the original on 26 March 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2020. Trans.:In the assembly elections, political parties are putting up more candidates for their base vote castes. The RLSP, the main constituent of the Grand Democratic Secular Front, considers the Kushwaha (Koeri) society its base vote. This front consists of 6 parties. Of these, RALOSPA will contest the most seats. The party will contest elections on more than 100 seats, including 40% Kushwaha candidates. The RLSP has fielded candidates for 42 seats in the first phase, of which 17 are Kushwaha candidates.
