PM Modi addresses at BJP Headquarters after the NDA wins the Bihar assembly election 2025, in New Delhi on Friday. (Image Credit: X/ @BJP4India)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking during his victory speech at the BJP headquarters made a very interesting comment. He used the Bihar win to send a message to Bengal, which goes to polls next year. “The Ganga flows through Bihar and reaches Bengal. Bihar has paved the way for the BJP’s victory in Bengal. I congratulate the people of Bihar.
Together, we will uproot jungle raj from West Bengal as well,” he said. Given the Modi-Shah track record of turning states around, there is a message there for Mamata Bannerji. But to be fair, the TMC is not the RJD. She is a two term sitting chief minister who has been winning with very high margins over the rest. She knows how to wield authority as well as distribute largesse and patronage. And unlike the former Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik who was routed in the last assembly polls, she has both age and health on her side. She is also hands on, there is no second power centre to misuse or undermine her authority. In fact, if there is one challenger to the Modi juggernaut, it is her.
Hence it would be interesting to see how Modi and Shah work this terrain. First they will need to find a strong local face. That is also one of the takeaways from Bihar, the immense goodwill a fading Nitish Kumar still enjoyed on ground. The vote was very much for him even though the BJP managed to inch past the JD(U) in the seats’ tally. There is also a message here for sustained reforms. Putting Rs10,000 in the bank accounts may have helped but in the end, it was the school girl who had grown up riding a bicycle given by Nitish Kumar 19 years ago that turned up to vote for him.
In the end, the BJP will have to wait before it gets its first CM in the state of Bihar, the only state in the hindi heartland to deny the BJP this privilege. But it did get a compensation prize by winning the largest tally of seats, and more than that, a promise for the future hovers on the horizon.
For the Opposition, well its not just the Congress but the regional parties as well that have to get their act together for the RJD cannot get away by blaming its national partner for its own poor tally. The BJP is making this a vote against dynasty but that would be too limiting. The verdict has larger lessons including the kind of issues that were raised, the credibility of the leaders themselves and the connect with the voters. All in all the very political state of Bihar has delivered a high powered climatic verdict.
