Patna: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumnus Naveen Kumar (26) from Sitamarhi, who recently floated a political outfit – Bahujan Azad Party ( BAP ) – along with 49 other alumni of the premier engineering institution, many from Bihar, firmly believes that “backward classes don’t want soap and oil as they are hungry for their rights”.BAP, the name already doing rounds on social media even before its formal recognition by the Election Commission, has vowed to work for the uplift of the backward, poor and downtrodden sections of society. Incidentally, the party of youngsters, many of whom have left lucrative jobs to work in the hinterlands to pursue active politics, is dominated by SCs, STs and other backward classes.“Mainstream parties like BJP and Congress have failed to provide the expected upliftment to the backward castes after independence. We will focus on equal opportunity in education and health services among other basic needs for dalits, tribals and OBCs,” Naveen Kumar alias Vidrohi Naveen, an alumnus of IIT-Delhi (2015- batch), told this reporter over phone on Tuesday.Naveen’s senior Vikrant Vatsal, who hails from Muzaffarpur, said BAP would pitch for population-based reservation for backward classes. “We want 60% reservation for the OBCs based on their proportion in total population,” Vikrant, who comes from OBC community, said.The party is planning to contest the general elections to be held next year. “We had initially targeted Bihar assembly elections to be held in 2020. However, looking at the enormous response being received from across the country, we are now thinking of contesting the Lok Sabha elections in 2019,” said Naveen.Naveen, who also runs a free-coaching institute – Marginalised and Underprivileged Kinsfolk Advancement (MAUKA) – in Samastipur to help kids make it to IITs and NITs, said BAP would organize a rally in Delhi and launch a membership drive to set up its units in different states.Vikrant, a topper in Matric and Intermediate exams conducted by Bihar School Examination Board, had graduated from IIT-Delhi in 2013. He was an entrepreneur before playing a key role in forming BAP. Naveen, on the other hand, had campaigned for Grand Alliance candidates in 2015 assembly elections in the state.“After completing my engineering from IIT-Delhi, I came back to my native Riga village in Sitamarhi district. I campaigned for the Grand Alliance candidates in 2015 state assembly elections. However, I felt cheated after the alliance failed to work on its agenda of serving the poor by introducing land reforms and improving the status of the underprivileged,” Naveen said.“The idea to form a party was coined in October last year. The core members of the party made a thorough research on political parties and judiciary. We started the campaign in February this year from Sitamarhi. Later, other districts like Sasaram, Sheohar, Motihari and Muzaffarpur were covered. The members talked to rural people and heard their woes. Our next move is to organise a big rally in Delhi,” he added.The BAP’s banner interestingly carries the picture of Kanshi Ram, the founder of Bahujan Samaj Party, apart from others like Dr B R Ambedkar, Mahatma Phule, Ram Manohar Lohia, Subhash Chandra Bose and A P J Abdul Kalam.The other founding members of the party include Singh Ajit Kumar from Sasaram, who completed his education from Annamalai University (Tamil Nadu), IIT- Kharagpur’s Sumit Kumar (UP), Sarkar Akhilesh (Sitamarhi) and Sampat Kumar (Telangana). Majority of members are from UP and Bihar.

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