LANDSLIDE BIHAR WIN A POLITICAL RECKONING

NDA's clean sweep leaves opposition reeling and questions viability of its current strategy beyond its traditional base

- BY NIDHI RAZDAN | Special to Gulf News

In the end it was a landslide win for the NDA alliance in Bihar. Despite being chief minister for nearly 20 years, Nitish Kumar showed that pro-incumbency is possible, bettering the JDU's performance from the 2020 election. Bihar may be the poorest state in India, but for voters Nitish is clearly their choice.

The huge surge in women voters, who have been supporters of Nitish for his women friendly schemes for the last two decades, played a major role in the NDA victory. The 10,000 rupees handed out to women right on the eve of the election was a game changer, something we have seen in several states before like Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. But this combined with Nitish Kumar's long history of empowering women through bicycles and various schemes made the women vote even more decisively in favour of the NDA.

Nitish Kumar's stunning performance