Did Nitish Kumar’s ₹10,000 Scheme Sway Bihar’s Verdict?

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Geeta Bhatt tells DeKoder that while the pre-poll cash transfer may have shaped voter sentiment, it did not amount to coercion—adding that Bihar’s political maturity and long-standing structural challenges played a larger role in the election outcome.

By TRH Political Desk

New Delhi, November 14, 2025 —In the aftermath of Bihar’s assembly election verdict, a debate has emerged over the political impact of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s ₹10,000 cash transfer scheme for women. While critics have alleged that the payment—credited just before the Model Code of Conduct kicked in—amounted to voter inducement, academician Geeta Bhatt told DeKoder that the explanation is more complex.

Speaking on the scheme’s effect, Bhatt told DeKoder that although the money may have influenced voter sentiment, it is “misleading” to interpret it as coercion. “Even if somebody has received some money, when the voter goes inside the booth and presses a button, nobody can force them. It is out of their own will,” she observed.

Bhatt argued that the cash transfer appeared meaningful to beneficiaries who saw it as a rare moment of economic relief. “For months they have been dealing with day-to-day financial pressures—personal loans from traders, rising expenses. Many felt this help could elevate them out of their present situation,” she said while taking part in a discussion on the election verdict. Attempts by opponents to label the money as a loan to be taken back, she added, “never really worked on the ground.”

While the timing—just before the election—has raised ethical questions, Bhatt insisted that it did not violate the Model Code. “Had it happened after the MCC, every opposition party would have gone to court. It happened before. Yes, close to elections, but still before,” she noted.

Bhatt also highlighted Bihar’s political maturity, arguing that voters are not passive recipients of welfare incentives. “People in Bihar understand governance. They also recognise the negatives that have accumulated in the system over decades—from industrial collapse to poor infrastructure. Any government must prioritise these structural issues,” she said.

Bhatt suggests that Bihar’s voters made a choice shaped by both relief and realism. “There was no compulsion,” she said. “Voters decided on their own what they felt was good for them.”

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