Bihar Assembly polls: ‘Cometh the election, woo-eth the women’ is Nitish Kumar’s mantra

Women for long have formed the backbone of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s electoral strategy — a carefully cultivated constituency that has rewarded him in successive elections. From the cycle scheme for schoolgirls to prohibition policies aimed at curbing domestic abuse, Kumar’s gender-focused welfare measures have helped him carve out a reliable vote bank. With assembly elections due in a few months, the Bihar government has given another big sop for the state’s women.

 

The Nitish Kumar government’s move to grant 35 per cent reservation for women who are permanent residents of Bihar in all direct recruitment across state government services is likely to be a talking point during the campaign. Though the quota had existed for women since 2016, the latest cabinet decision tweaks it to make it available only for those who are domicile, which translates into primarily the resident women voters.

 

This is seen as an attempt to galvanise women voters once again. Madhya Pradesh is another state which had, last year, extended 35 per cent reservation for women in government jobs. Some other states like Odisha also offer 33 per cent reservation for women.

 

It was not just the women, which the ruling NDA government is trying to woo. The cabinet approved the formation of the Bihar Youth Commission. With unemployment and migration being pressing concerns for the state’s younger population, the move is seen as an effort to reassert Kumar’s relevance among first-time voters and politically active youth — many of whom are being courted aggressively by opposition, particularly Tejashwi Yadav, and Prashant Kishore.

 

In another inclusive gesture, the government expanded the ‘Sambal’ scheme for differently-abled candidates. Under the revised scheme, male candidates from Backward Classes (BC), Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), and General category — who do not qualify for other government incentives — will receive ₹50,000 for clearing prelims and ₹1 lakh for preparing for mains and interview stages of BPSC and UPSC civil services exams.

 

These decisions also come at a time when his JD(U)-BJP alliance faces mounting challenges from the RJD-Congress-led INDIA bloc, which is framing the upcoming elections as a referendum on development and representation.

 

“In Bihar’s caste-fragmented landscape, women voters often vote independently of family lines. Nitish Kumar understands their motivations better than most,” a political analyst, who refused to be named, said.

 

With the elections around the corner, the test will be whether these announcements will translate into mobilisation on the ground, and whether the Nitish Kumar formula of social engineering with a welfare tilt still holds sway.

India