The Bihar Assembly Elections 2025 are scheduled for November this year, but the state’s political atmosphere has been highly charged for the past two years. With Nitish Kumar at the helm, Bihar’s political scene is anything but dull. The Chief Minister often makes unusual statements, giving the opposition an opportunity to launch fresh attacks. At other times, he surprises everyone by switching sides to join the opposition and form the government.
In the last election, Tejashwi Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) emerged as the single-largest party but fell short of forming the government. It later got support from Kumar’s JDU who left NDA and joined Mahagathbandhan, only to switch sides again last year. However, Tejashwi Yadav has adopted a ‘twice bitten, always shy’ approach after being duped by Nitish Kumar in the past.
Now, seeing the success of freebies in states across the country, from Jharkhand to Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu to Karnataka, and Delhi to Maharashtra, the RJD has picked the best options to woo the voters ahead of the polls. Tejashwi Yadav’s freebies promise now echoes Aam Aadmi Party’s Delhi schemes and BJP’s schemes in states like Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Tejashwi has now promised to give Rs 2,500 to women head of the family per month under ‘Maai Bahin Maan Yojana’, a scheme similar to BJP’s Ladli Bahin Yojana. The RJD also promised 200 units of free electricity, a popular AAP scheme in Delhi. Other promises by the RJD include a Rs 1,500 pension to widows, senior citizens and persons with disabilities; lakhs of jobs for youth, establishment of industries and prevention of migration.
सभी बिहारवासी जानते हैं कि एक राजनेता जो कहते हैं, वह करते हैं, वह वादे के पक्के राजनेता हैं @yadavtejashwi जी!
तीव्र गति से समावेशी #तेजस्वी विकास मतलब #TejashwiYadav! pic.twitter.com/WwbNwUuVQo
— Rashtriya Janata Dal (@RJDforIndia) January 9, 2025
Migration due to a lack of jobs and employment has been a bigger challenge for Bihar and its successive governments. The state still lacks a proper business environment for big industries amid challenging law and order situations and infrastructural issues. Lakhs of people from Bihar migrate to Delhi, Gujarat, Telangana and other states in search of livelihood.
The new entrant in the Bihar poll dynamics, Prashant Kishor and his party Jan Suraaj, are also making similar promises to stop migration and increase pensions.
Bihar has 243 assembly seats and the majority mark is 122. In the last election, RJD got 75, BJP 74, JDU 43, Congress 19 and LJP 1 while other parties and independents bagged 31 seats.