Bihar polls to be held in two phases, Nov 14 decision day

Roughly 74.3 million people across 243 constituencies in Bihar will vote in assembly polls across two phases on November 6 and 11, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Monday, marking the beginning of an electoral contest that will have strong ramifications on national politics.

- Dhrubo Jyoti

Elections in India's third-most populous province are usually chaotic, steeped in caste calculations, and rested on a razor’s edge five years ago - the difference between the two major coalitions was less than 12,000 votes - even as questions of aspiration, welfare and jobs figure high up in one of the country’s poorest states.

The votes will be counted on November 14.

The elections will be a referendum not just on chief minister Nitish Kumar and Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav, but also on the legacy of the Mandal (social justice) politics that the two parties represent in one of the movement's original playgrounds.

"This is the mother of all elections," said Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

The elections will also have ramifications beyond Patna. For the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), it is yet another opportunity to show that its unexpected setback in the 2024 general elections was merely a blip, and continue its march of assembly elections victory after Haryana and Maharashtra. It will set the mood for a clutch of key assembly polls next summer as well as pull the rug from underneath the campaign agenda of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has spent months alleging irregularities in India's voting and vote counting mechanism. And it will focus public attention on domestic politics instead of international relations where recent tumult in the relationship with the US and President Donald Trump's caprice has bruised sentiments.

For the Opposition, the elections offer a chance to stem the tide of losses that followed its stellar performance in the 2024 general elections and win a major state with enormous political heft. It will re-establish the Opposition as a force in the Hindi heartland as well as position Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav as inheritors of the Mandal mantle, pushing politics away from communalism towards caste.