The 2025 Bihar elections bring key opportunities for the Opposition’s Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance or GA), a part of the nationwide INDIA bloc, to strengthen its position in the Hindi belt, elevate Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejaswi Yadav to a leadership position, and give a boost to Rahul Gandhi’s stature.
The grand alliance’s strategy focuses on caste equations, allegations of vote theft, alleged anti-incumbency against the Nitish Kumar government, raging issues such as unemployment, and promises of sops.
While the RJD, the main architect of the Grand Alliance, still maintains a solid base among the Yadav and Muslim voters, a combination that had benefitted Lalu Prasad in the past, the coalition is also eyeing a chunk of the most important caste formation: the Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) that represents 36% of the population.
On September 25, top Mahagathbandhan leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi Yadav, Dipankar Bhattacharya of the CPI (Marxist Leninist) and others, unveiled a manifesto for the EBCs in Patna. They announced a 10-point programme focused on education and employment reservation for the Extremely Backward Classes (EBC). The manifesto promised an ‘Extremely Backward Classes Atrocities Prevention Act’, specifically for the EBCs, apparently along the lines of similar laws already in place nationwide for the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (SC/ST).
“The public mood in Bihar is in favour of a change in dispensation. Our win would herald the fall of the NDA government at the Centre,” said RJD’s senior leader and former speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary.
{{/usCountry}}“The public mood in Bihar is in favour of a change in dispensation. Our win would herald the fall of the NDA government at the Centre,” said RJD’s senior leader and former speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary.
{{/usCountry}}Tejashwi, 35, has all his eyes on the chief ministerial chair while another ally, VIP chief Mukesh Sahani, who has a vote base among Nishads( fisherman community), is vying to become the deputy CM and seeking 60 seats.
The pre-poll campaign has centred on core issues such as providing employment, ending migration and pushing infrastructure to project the Opposition coalition as ”pro-development”.
Tejashwi has been aggressive in promising employment for young people, reminding how his 17-month stint in power with CM Kumarfrom August 22 to January 24, generated 500,000 jobs for teachers.
“ I have a vision for Bihar and we want development. Hum umra se kaacha hain, magar hum jubaan ke pakke hain. Padhayi, likhai, sinchayi, Dawai aur sunwai ki sarkar hogi humari ( My age may be small but I am true to my promises. We will give a government committed to education, health, redressal of grievances etc),” Yadav has said in almost all his pre-election campaigns for the last few months.
“There are two axes in Bihar. Development and caste. There are issues of undelivered promises , which is being highlighted by Prashant Kishor to make a poll narrative. The JD(U) and BJP has a challenge to nullify it. Caste will be a factor in the state polls,” said Rakesh Tiwary, an economist and political observer based in Patna.
The RJD and its allies are banking on wooing Kushwahas ( an OBC group with 6 % of the population and historically close ties to the NDA) apart from betting on their time tested Muslim-Yadav-Dalit combination, with fringe votes coming from upper castes.
“ In the 2020 polls , we lost 10-15 seats by a margin of less than 500 seats, otherwise we would have easily won. This time, we are doing the seat adjustments in a scientific way by focusing on winnability. We are hoping to clinch a clean majority, “said a GA leader, requesting anonymity.