Bihar's Election Campaign Is Being Shaped By Its Youth

Bihar’s massive youth bulge is shaping the election campaign in India’s most underdeveloped state. The chief ministerial aspirants, from doughty incumbent Nitish Kumar to legacy politician Tejashwi Yadav and dynamic newbie Prashant Kishor, all are targeting under-30 voters, each in his own way.

Rashtriya Janata Dal boss Tejashwi Yadav is just 35 and is playing the youth card for all he’s worth. On Tuesday, he grabbed eyeballs by grooving with youngsters on Patna's Marine Drive. What escaped attention was the scene of Yadav’s dance moves: a 4-lane marquee expressway dreamed up and executed by his arch-rival, Nitish Kumar. Running along the banks of the Ganga, the 20-km stretch is a reminder that whatever little development Bihar has seen began with Kumar’s innings as CM in 2005.

Tejashwi belted out a lyric in praise of his father and former CM, Lalu Yadav: “Lalu bina chaalu ee Bihar na hoi” (Bihar needs Lalu). Reminding voters of his troubled legacy may not have been a wise move. His family’s 15-year stewardship of Bihar from 1990 to 2005 saw the state slide to the bottom in economic and human development indicators. In the crucial post-liberalisation decade, other states took advantage of economic reforms to forge ahead, while Bihar remained bogged down in caste politics, violence and corruption. For example, Tamil Nadu’s per capita GDP shot up six-fold to Rs 30,062 by 2004-5, well above the all-India average of Rs 24,142, while Bihar remained at a modest Rs 7,914.

In 2005, Bihar had the highest rate of poverty at 54.55 per cent, the highest unemployment and the least investment. It also had the poorest literacy rate and the highest birth rate. The education system was in shambles, with schools desperately understaffed. A notoriously poor law and order situation and equally poor infrastructure stymied industrial development. With limited opportunities for employment at home, labour migrated en masse in search of livelihood.

Yadav, one of the nine children of Lalu and Rabri Yadav, should ideally explain how he will do things differently. In the bad old days, ‘social justice’ was deployed to justify Bihar’s poor governance and the development gap and to protect the interests of crime lords. Yadav knows that will no longer fly with the young electorate.

So, he has sought to deflect attention from his party’s disastrous past by targeting Kumar in the present. While Kumar’s first two terms saw a slew of reforms, which boosted Bihar’s growth to an average of 11 per cent in that period, his frequent political oscillations appear to have had a decelerating effect. While gains have been made, Bihar remains at the bottom of state-wise rankings on significant metrics, including per capita income. It stands 15th in terms of GSDP and accounted for a mere 2.8 per cent share in India’s nominal GDP.

As for human development indicators, the poverty rate has fallen to 33.7 per cent (2021), while literacy has improved to 79.7 per cent (2022), and the total fertility rate (TFR) has decreased from 4 in 2005 to 3 in 2020. But urbanisation is still low and population density high, with significant unemployment. Although salaried employment improved from 4.2 per cent in 2005 to 10 per cent in 2021, it remains well below the national average. Uttar Pradesh stands in stark comparison to Bihar, having progressed visibly to become one of the top five states by industrial output.

The ageing Kumar is a convenient target for the youthful Yadav in a state where 40 per cent of voters are less than 30 years of age. Unemployment is a huge concern, and Yadav has flamboyantly promised jobs for one crore youth. He has also mooted a domicile policy, that is, reserving jobs for locals. He intends to waive fees for competitive exams, provide transport to exam centres and set up a Youth Commission. All this, in addition to handouts of Rs 2,500 to every woman, subsidies on gas cylinders, free electricity and increased pensions for widows, the elderly and the differently abled.

Kumar has countered by claiming he will create one crore jobs both in the government and the private sector over the next five years. He also outlined plans for a skill university under the Saat Nischay Scheme to enhance employability over the next five years. To underline the credibility of his “resolve”, he pointed out that 8 lakh youth had already been given government jobs between 2005 and 2020. In addition, eligible women will receive Rs 10,000 to assist them in finding a source of income, besides easy access to credit.

Prashant Kishor, founder of the Jan Suraj party and political strategist extraordinaire, is not to be outdone. He guarantees that local youth will get in situ employment at salaries ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 per month, thereby obviating the need for migrating in search of work. Remittances from some 7.5 million workers from Bihar account for a large chunk of its GDP, but that hasn’t deterred Kishor from promising that 5 million youth will be brought back and given jobs by his government. Other sops include underwriting private school fees for underprivileged children and pensions for all senior citizens.

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Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Kanhaiya Kumar, too, have targeted young voters with the promise of jobs. Gandhi addressed a ‘maharozgaar mela’ (employment fair) in Patna earlier this year, castigating Kumar’s government for failing to provide local job opportunities for Bihar’s youth. Earlier, Kanhaiya had conducted a padyatra, raising the slogan of ‘Palayan Roko, Naukri Do’ (stop migration, provide jobs).

Interestingly, none of the contenders have explained just how these jobs will materialise, given the state’s heavy debt burden and limited industrial growth. Whoever ends up at the helm will not be able to deliver on promises in the short term. Until the state accelerates infrastructure development, improves law and order and pro-actively implements the labour codes so as to attract investment, Bihar’s youth will continue to seek their livelihood elsewhere.

Bhavdeep Kang is a senior journalist with 35 years of experience working with major newspapers and magazines. She is now an independent writer and author.