Politics News / 4 Brahmins including Fadnavis, but not a single Dalit... Who are the 30 CM of the country

Politics News: Politics and caste are deeply related in India. In recent years, the caste background of the Chief Ministers has become the center of political discourse. The selection of Chief Ministers on the basis of caste, religion, and community not only balances regional equations, but through this political parties also try to give a social message.

Increasing influence of Brahmin community

The Brahmin community, which has about 5% share in the total population of India, has strengthened its hold on the post of Chief Minister. Currently, four Chief Ministers in the country are from the Brahmin community:

Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra)

Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam)

Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal)

Bhajanlal Sharma (Rajasthan)

This number is third after Thakur and OBC Chief Ministers. This dominance of the Brahmin community is considered socially and politically important.

Lack of Dalit community

The absence of a Dalit community, which constitutes about 18% of the country's population, on the post of Chief Minister raises a big question. Charanjit Singh Channi of Punjab was the only Dalit Chief Minister of the country till 2022. Currently, no state has a Dalit Chief Minister, although some states do have Dalit Deputy CMs.

Advance of tribal Chief Ministers

There are currently four Chief Ministers from the tribal community, which constitutes about 9% of the population:

Hemant Soren (Jharkhand)

Neiphiu Rio (Nagaland)

Mohan Majhi (Odisha)

Vishnudev Sai (Chhattisgarh)

After a long time, tribal leaders have got representation as Chief Ministers, which is the result of regional parties and focus on tribal issues.

Dominance of Thakur community

Five states have Chief Ministers from the Thakur community, prominent among them are:

Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh)

Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand)

Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh)

N Biren Singh (Manipur)

Aatishi (Delhi)

Dominance of OBC leaders

About 7 Chief Ministers in India come from the OBC community. These include:

Nitish Kumar (Bihar)

Bhupendra Patel (Gujarat)

Siddaramaiah (Karnataka)

N Rangaswamy (Puducherry)

Manik Saha (Tripura)

The high number of chief ministers from the OBC community indicates the preference given by political parties to this community.

Contribution of minorities and other sections

There are also some chief ministers from minority communities:

Omar Abdullah (Jammu and Kashmir, Muslim)

Bhagwant Mann (Punjab, Sikh)

Conrad Sangma (Meghalaya, Christian)

Apart from this, Pema Khandu (Arunachal Pradesh) and Prem Singh Tamang (Sikkim) who belong to Buddhism are also chief ministers.

Viewpoint different from caste system

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and Kerala Chief Minister P Vijayan describe themselves as atheists and opponents of the caste system. This shows that leadership beyond caste is also getting acceptance in some parts of India.

Conclusion

The caste picture of chief ministers reflects the deep socio-economic complexities of Indian politics. These figures indicate that even though caste remains an important part of politics, some exceptions are also challenging it. In the coming years, it will be interesting to see whether there will be any major change in these equations, or caste and community will remain at the center of politics.