Industry wheels slow down, await workhorses from Bihar

More than 74 million voters are set to cast their vote in Bihar’s Assembly elections on November 6 and 11.

- SARTHAK CHOUDHURY & SHINE JACOB

The rush at the Patna railway station. The extended leave, which began with the start of Chhath Puja, will go on until the final day of polling in Bihar

Yet the ripples of this democratic exercise stretch far beyond the state’s borders — from the textile mills of Tamil Nadu to the toy factories of Punjab — where machines have fallen silent and production lines slowed to a crawl.

Across India’s industrial heartlands, a familiar absence is being felt. Between 30 and 60 percent of the Bihari migrant workforce, the backbone of construction sites, manufacturing units, and logistics networks, has vanished homeward for an extended break — a leave that began with the start of Chhath Puja on October 25 and stretches until the final day of polling.

Industry sources told Business Standard that this outflow is unlike the routine disruptions of local or national elections. Workers are returning in unusually large numbers, disrupting construction, manufacturing, and transport sectors across key industrial states.

Take Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu’s knitwear capital, where roughly 250,000 workers hail from Bihar.

“Our work has been affected; 50 to 60 per cent of workers from Bihar have gone back,” says M Muthurathinam, president of the Tiruppur Exporters and Manufacturers Association (TEAMA).