The stage is set for the decisive second phase on November 11, after the first phase of the Bihar Assembly elections 2025 that saw a historic turnout of 64.66 per cent with people of the state coming out to vote in large numbers.
Blazing guns of electioneering will fall silent on Sunday as campaigning ends and the state enters a 48-hour mandatory silence period.
However, in that silence, several crucial issues will likely echo in the minds of the voters. These are the fundamental issues that the people of Bihar have been waiting to see resolved for decades. Political parties have also raised these issues during the campaign in their own ways.
As always, the voters are likely to decide who they will vote for based on these core matters.
Here is a look at five key issues in Bihar
1. Migration
This has been one of the major issues throughout the election campaign. From Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to his RJD ally Tejashwi Yadav and the new entrant Prashant Kishore, all have raised the issue of migration of Bihar’s youth for jobs, education and healthcare to other states.
”The NDA government had reduced Biharis to labourers of the country,” Rahul Gandhi alleged during campaigning. Why should Biharis have to leave their state for small jobs has been the emotional pitch that echoed in most rallies of the Opposition leaders.
2. Employment
Joblessness is directly connected to the migration and the issue has found equal prominence in the poll campaigns of both the Opposition and the ruling alliance. While the NDA has promised 1 crore jobs and expansion of industries in the state, the Mahagathbandhan has vowed to give a government job to every household in the state.
3. Education and Healthcare
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has also raised the issue of the lack of quality education and healthcare in the state. Bihar has been the hub of education with prominent universities such as Nalanda during ancient times. Rahul has said that the state deserves restoration of that status along with top-class medical facilities, so that people of the state won’t have to go to hospitals in Delhi.
And the issue has also resonated with the middle class and the youth of Bihar, and is likely to be a key factor in this election.
4. Infiltration
While the Opposition has mainly focused on migration, unemployment and health and education, the BJP-led NDA has centred its campaign around this demographic issue. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has raised the issue of illegal infiltration in almost all his rallies.
He has accused the Congress-RJD of supporting illegal infiltrators for vote bank politics. How much this issue will resonate in people’s minds when they go out to cast their votes will be seen after the polls.
5. Law and order
Another issue the BJP-led NDA has prominently raised in every campaign rally has been the law and order situation. While the NDA has been in power in the state for nearly 2 decades, the alliance leaders are still reminding people about the alleged “jungle raj” during the 10 years of Lalu Prasad-led RJD’s rule between 1995 and 2005.
Over the last few days, Modi has particularly targeted the Opposition’s alliance over the issue, taking a “Jungle Raj Pathshala” jibe. The PM has claimed that if the RJD-Congress alliance returns to power, kidnapping, extortion, murder, and other crimes will increase.