What's the Bihar Model?

From Mandal to modernity, Bihar is at a political crossroads

- Mrityunjay Sharma

As Bihar heads into the 2025 assembly elections, it finds itself at a historic inflection point.

This may well be the final electoral face-off between the two stalwarts who have defined the state's politics for more than three decades: Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav. While Nitish remains the chief ministerial face of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Lalu, though not on the ballot, still looms large as the guiding light of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led INDIA group.

What began in the 1970s as student activism during Jayaprakash Narayan's (JP) 'Total Revolution' has now come full circle. The very leaders, who once marched side by side during protests, are today overseeing the transition to a new generation of post-Mandal politicians. As Bihar stands on the cusp of this generational shift, the real question is: what kind of politics will shape the state's next chapter?

Bihar has long been a crucible of political change in India. From being among the first states to abolish the zamindari system after Independence to birthing the socialist wave that challenged the Congress' hegemony, the state's political history is deeply intertwined with the country's democratic evolution. Bihar was among the first states where the Congress lost power in 1967, and it was here that the JP movement, the most significant post-Independence people's movement, took shape in the mid-1970s. That movement seeded an entire generation of leaders like Lalu, Nitish, Ram Vilas Paswan, and Sushil Modi.