Bihar 2025: The Political Jugular of Jungle Raj Faces a Test
A BJP public meeting in Seemanchal region of Bihar (Image Amit Kumar)
The silent voters, the extremely backward castes and the women, speak only in the language of ballots in Bihar.
By MANISH ANAND
New Delhi, November 6, 2025 — Bihar votes on Thursday in the first phase after a high-octane electioneering came to an end in 121 Assembly seats. With dust settling on canvassing for votes, defining feature of the Bihar Assembly elections remains Chief Minister Nitish Kumar — speaking less but holding his ground firmly.
In his possibly fag-end of the political career, Kumar, 74, with his silence, forced the BJP top brass to sing paeans of him. Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah made a somersault on the NDA leadership in Bihar, from the legislators electing leader to “no vacancy in CM post in Patna.”
While the crowds surge in rallies of Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav, Kumar counts on the power of silent women voters, nursed by him with well-crafted welfarism and direct transfers. Women voters still hold the poll pivot in Bihar, admitted by Yadav as he also went whole hog to appeal to the silent but aggressive voters with a full basket of promises.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah, as well as the BJP election amplifiers, have pinned their hopes on the power of “Jungle Raj” theme to deliver the NDA another mandate in Bihar. In 2005, the law-order situations in Bihar were literally in gutters from where Kumar laid down his political turf with the BJP in supporting role.
In two decades, Bihar still remembers the “Jungle Raj,” with episodes and incidents acquiring folklore proportions. The millennials have heard tales of gory murders, abductions, and day-light loot. Those above 50 years of age, who don’t belong to the core constituency of Yadav, cannot still stand arguments that Bihar is a state plagued by migration and unemployment because Modi and his government only gave trains to the state to transport labourers to other states while industries headed to Gujarat.
While Kumar sits comfortable with his women core constituency, the BJP is blushing with blistering attacks of party’s former strategist Prashant Kishor who vows to be a nemesis of the saffron outfit. Kishor’s Jan Suraaj per political observers committed tactical blunders in betting on doctors and moneybags in Assembly elections while also not showing courage to enter the electoral battlefield himself. Yet he damaged the BJP’s unchecked ability in the past to pass on narratives of hyperboles on Pakistan, Ghuspaithiye, and Viksit Bharat (not heard on election trails in Bihar).
Yadav reiterates in his media interactions that “Jungle Raj” be not linked to a caste. The silent voters, the extremely backward castes and the women, speak only in the language of ballots in Bihar.
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