Bihar Polls: Modi Pumps Current as Tejashwi Reads Undercurrent

On the eve of Chhath, Bihar’s biggest cultural festival, politics took center stage as Modi courted sentiment with symbolism and rallies, while Tejashwi Yadav countered with an aggressive campaign targeting the state’s deepest wounds—joblessness and migration.

By MANISH ANAND

Patna, October 25, 2025 — A Day before the people in Bihar began four-day-long Chhath festival, lead political actors opened their narrative cards. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three outings—two rallies and a visit to Karpoori Gram—sought to grab Bihar’s poll pivot. Tejashwi Yadav, the CM face of the Opposition’s Mahagathbandhan, launched a blitzkrieg to hit the ruling NDA where it hurts the most—unemployment and migration.

Modi sought symbolism in his first day show on Bihar poll turf. Yadav hurled the crude electoral barbs at the 20-year-long Nitish Kumar-led administration. The Prime Minister, the lead campaigner of the NDA, read out Bihar’s recent history to scare the voters. Yadav probed the NDA on unabated spate of migrations out of the state of the youth.

Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah, meanwhile, sought to force the “Ghuspaithye” (illegal immigrants) into the electoral lexicon in Bihar. He seems to be extending his poll narrative from Jharkhand’s Assembly elections where the similar pitch had been plundered by Hemant Soren after he hit the bull’s eye by running a localised election campaign.

With claims to have bestowed the Bharat Ratna on Karpoori Thakur, Modi’s visit to the village of Bihar’s former Chief Minister aimed at consolidation of almost 36 percent extremely backward castes (EBCs). Modi has recently found his interest in Thakoor. Nitish Kumar claims to have been the true political heir of Thakoor as he perfected the social engineering of the former Chief Minister.

Modi attempted to force the Congress at the centre stage of the Bihar elections in his bid to steer away the polls from the emerging Tejashwi versus Nitish script. He reminded the people that the Congress under the influence of Sonia Gandhi had insulted Sitaram Kesri.

It is disputed if Kesri commands a cult following in Bihar that his alleged insult will rile up the voters in the state. It’s also not empirically established if the people in Bihar accept as Karpoori Thakur as an icon that a visit to his village will consolidate the vote base of the EBCs. But Modi certainly appears to have tried his first day show in Bihar to hook the people to symbolism.

Yet political pundits in Bihar assert that the state never votes on symbolism. Holding urine for hours in an unreserved train compartment for hours, the people of Bihar heading to their homes to be with family members during Chhath have rejected the BJP bid to force narratives of Ghuspathiya in 2015 state elections.

Tejashwi on the other hand seems to have sniffed the wind in Bihar aptly that his best chance lies to talking employment and exploiting a deepening sense of uncertainty on future of Nitish Kumar.

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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