Domicile demand grows louder in Bihar as protesters warn of electoral backlash

Thousands of students and job aspirants took to streets here on Thursday demanding immediate implementation of a domicile policy in government jobs ensuring priority to candidates possessing local residence certificates.

Criticising Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for offering jobs to people from other states, they said domicile policy is essential to prevent large-scale migration and address the unemployment issue in Bihar.

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They warned that if not resolved soon, this issue will have a negative impact on the ruling parties in the upcoming assembly elections in the state.

The protesters who were marching to the chief minister’s residence were stopped by the police midway near JP Golambar and a heavy police force was deployed to prevent them from entering the restricted zones.

During media interactions, the protestors said a state-specific domicile policy would curb migration and provide jobs to Bihar’s youth, who are grappling with severe unemployment.

They said a major section of unemployed youth in Bihar are annoyed with Nitish Kumar, who removed the domicile-based reservation for teaching jobs in government-run schools in Bihar, on the pretext of procuring talented teachers from across the country to improve the standard of school education in Bihar.

With the assembly elections due in a few months, the demand for a domicile policy is expected to gain momentum. It was very much evident from the banners and posters carried by the protesters.

One of the protestors carrying a poster with “Vote de Bihari, Naukari le Baahari” emblazoned on it, said Nitish Kumar should not expect votes from youth if he fails to implement the domicile policy.

The issue was also raised during the protests challenging the 70th Combined Competitive Examination (Preliminary) conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) on 13 December 2024, on the basis of alleged paper leak. On the occasion, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had promised to implement a 100 per cent domicile policy in government jobs after coming to power.

Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor has also supported the demand for a domicile policy in Bihar. He advocated Biharis having the first rights over jobs in the state.

But state ministers as well as JD(U) leaders have frequently ruled out the possibility of domicile policy being introduced in the state, saying implementation of domicile policy would be against the provisions of the Indian Constitution.