Same story, new actor

The next Netas Gen is the leading Bihar Congress, but it is still caste and faith

Nitish Kumar rarely looks shaky. Even if his government changed from one alliance to another. He is rarely a failure engine in imagery or perception. But before the 2025 General Assembly elections, Bihar’s CM may find itself shaking like some of the bridges in his state. For all beliefs about “Sushasan Babu”, the truth is that his biggest competition is in his own league. NDA Ally calls himself Modi’s “Hanuman”, the man who is the JDU spoiler of the 2020 state poll, Dalit League Minister Chirag Paswan hopes to be the NDA’s CM-Face. And he has no bones about it.

Chirag is confident of moving from parliament to Patna and plans to compete in all 243 parliamentary seats, as the 2020 LJP may have hurt the NDA in 59 seats, where it relegates JDU and allies to third place. Chirag’s father Ram Vilas Paswan has risen from the dust of factionism after his death in 2021, in large part because Modi is following him. Probably still early. But Bihar will elect, five years of which introduce bridges, poverty, immigration and the cycle of Moses Moses investigation. When polls were conducted, it returned to the cauldron that stirred the caste.

This is the first election after the deaths of BJP Sushil Modi and LJP Ram Vilas Paswan. Nitish’s health is not what it used to be, Lalu handed over the rope to his son – the son Tejashwi who led the opposition to the Indian camp. It’s still among Jitan Ram Manjhi’s son. Nitish’s efforts to incorporate his son into politics are brief – the future of JDU seems uncertain. NDA produced Nitish CM in 2020, but so far, BJP is a bigger partner. In the 2020 National Poll, NDA won 125 seats (BJP 74, JDU 43) and then won UPA 110 (RJD 75, CONC 19). In Lok Sabha in 2024, BJP won 12 of Bihar’s 40 seats with a 21% voting share, JDU 12 seats with 19%, and Chirag’s LJP (RV), all 5 of its 5 seats competed with a 7% vote share. Opposition RJD won four seats with a score of 22%.

The Congress election is in part a swap that will be played in the context of the 2022 caste survey, the upcoming caste census and “illegal immigration”, the first poll conducted in Bihar. Bridges of collapse, paralyzed health, immigration and poverty – all for surveyors rather than elections.

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