If manifestos could transform Bihar, this land would be Scandinavia with litti-chokha. But they can’t, and everyone knows it. That’s why each election brings a familiar performance, from the glossy launch to the silence about cost or accountability.

Parties play it safe. The vaguer the promise, the easier the escape. But reading these manifestos is still worthwhile. If not delivery, at least they reveal the political imagination of Bihar’s contenders, and the stories they think will still sell.

This year, that imagination comes from three corners. The NDA led by BJP–JD(U), is promising stability and “development”. The Mahagathbandhan (MGB), led by RJD–Congress, is promising justice and jobs. Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj is pitching disruption and a reset.

Let’s strip away the shine of that glossy booklet and look closely at what’s actually being promised.

Same song, new DJ

The two alliances and Jan Suraaj are essentially promising the same. Poverty relief, healthcare for the poor, jobs and skill development, agriculture support, infrastructure development, women’s empowerment, law, order and corruption control. 

Why? Because no one in Bihar can afford to ignore them. It’s democracy’s one great joy: bitter rivals agreeing on what is broken.

All three promise jobs, sometimes in suspicious round numbers. The MGB promises a guaranteed government job for at least one member of every household. A law for this provision within 20 days, the allotment will begin in 20 months. The NDA promises 1 crore jobs, spread over five years, with no legal guarantee. Jan Suraaj promises to bring back migrants and employ them at home.

But none of them offer a detailed fiscal roadmap for this mountain-sized ambition.

All three promise to ensure relief on electricity. The MGB has offered 200 units free to every household, up from the NDA’s promise of 125 units, while Jan Suraaj has not put a number to its promise in offering lower tariffs through “better” governance.

Then there are the cash handouts. The MGB has promised Rs 1,500 for widows and the elderly with an yearly hike of Rs 200, and Rs 3,000 for people with disabilities. The NDA doesn’t mention any number but talks of social pension. Jan Suraaj goes wide, Rs 2,000 per month for every person over 60, including men.

Despite presenting widely different approaches and specific monetary guarantees, the MGB and the NDA manifestos share several fundamental goals for Bihar's development. Most notably, both alliances guarantee the “purchase of major crops”, specifically listing paddy, wheat, pulses, and maize, at the minimum support Price (MSP) at the panchayat level. Both alliances heavily prioritise “water resource management and flood control”, this includes specific commitments to the timely completion of large projects like the Kosi and Mandal reservoirs and the construction of canals from major rivers like the Ganga, Gandak, Kosi, and Mahananda.

Besides job creation, both promise to transform Bihar's industrial landscape through large-scale investment and the establishment of specialised sectors, such as IT Parks or dedicated industrial missions and building five expressways.

So yes, they may wear different colours and wave different flags, but the tapestry of these manifestos is woven from the same thread. These are promises that no politician can deny, because voters won’t let them, hopefully.

Divergent paths

Intent sounds uniform, but their implementation strategy reveals the political soul.

The MGB manifesto focuses on a broad range of social, economic, and governance guarantees to address the perceived failures in health, education, employment, and corruption under the previous administration.

For the current workforce, the alliance commits to implementing the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), and granting permanent status to Jeevika didis or Community Mobilisers (CMs), alongside an increased monthly salary of Rs 30,000.

The MGB manifesto leans heavily on caste justice, state led employment and welfare which matters. They also pair it with a huge push for madarasa upgrades in education, women’s colleges, SC/ST reservations, promising food processing facilities in every district and restarting sugar mills.

It’s a manifesto designed for the poor Bihari who has spent years watching the world pass him by, feeling invisible, and is done being patient.

The NDA, in contrast, sells a continuity narrative. The BJP-JDU alliance claims credit for highways, electricity, welfare schemes. Their manifesto talks of stability, infrastructure and investment. It also focuses also on internal security and law and order, always a silent undertone in Bihar politics. But there’s no acknowledgement of the fact that Nitish Kumar has been in power in alliance with the BJP for the majority of the last two decades.

The NDA manifesto isn’t pitching small reforms. They aren’t trying to fix Bihar as it exists. They’re pitching a transformed Bihar with 50 lakh crore investment target in tech and industry, semiconductor and defense corridors, global tech hubs, FinTech cities, a new Patna, multiple new airports, five mega food parks, 100 MSME parks, a factory in every district, and making Bihar an AI hub of India with training for every young person.

NDA’s pitch is clear, vote for us if you want Bihar to leapfrog the present.

And then there’s the new kid on the block, Jan Suraaj. 

Prashant Kishore is the wildcard in these elections, and seems to be poking every political sacred cow. Their manifesto isn’t out yet, maybe it’ll never be, but it appears as if the party is promising a system reset, and to go local first as much as possible.

Their headline grabber promise is lifting the ban on liquor in Bihar within hours of forming a government. Jan Suraaj openly states that prohibition in Bihar is a paradox. Alcohol is officially banned, but available unofficially everywhere which ruins lives selectively – mostly the lives of poor citizens.

They are promising private school access to every child where the government will pay the fee if there’s no good government school in the vicinity. They also promise to build a new exemplary school in every district and a loan at 4 percent interest rate for livelihood, small ventures.

The Jan Suraaj promise is of governance correction. Clear the corruption chokehold, trust individuals over the state, clean the pipes before pouring more water.

A few unique promises

There were a few truly unique promises from each alliance and Jan Suraaj, where there is no direct counterpart mentioned by any other party, and some may surprise you.

For instance, the MGB also guarantees the right to maternity leave and period leave for all working women, besides their promise to grant permanent status to all CMs. They also promise to abolish the controversial "Not Found Suitable (NFS)” concept in appointments. The MGB also has unique proposals for justice and small businesses, including forming a regulatory law to control arbitrary interest rates charged by microfinance companies, immediately halting the displacement of street vendors and implementing the 2014 vending law, and constituting a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to return the investment principal and interest to Sahara India investors.

In contrast, the NDA manifesto contains several distinct, large-scale initiatives. Like the promise of building 50 lakh new permanent houses, pledging 1 lakh crore rupees investment under the Vikshit Bihar Industrial Development Mission, and plans to establish Bihar as a global back-end and AI hub. The NDA promises the Karpuri Thakur Kisan Samman Nidhi, providing farmers with Rs 3,000, the specific Bihar Matsya Mission for fishing industry and Bihar Dugdha Mission to scale up dairy farmers’ incomes.

They also promise to develop the birthplace of Mother Janaki into the spiritual city called ‘Sitapuram’, and commit to making Bihar ‘flood-free within 5 years’ by implementing the ‘Flood to Fortune’ model.

And then I found a promise in the NDA manifesto which I couldn’t believe – to establish ‘advanced super speciality hospitals’ and ‘special schools’ dedicated to pediatrics and autism. Autism? In the NDA manifesto for elections in Bihar? For a second, I thought someone Googled “developed country infrastructure” and copy-pasted it into a Bihar manifesto.

Jan Suraaj also promises to release a top-100 corrupt list, special courts to prosecute, and confiscation of black wealth. All that has to be delivered in 100 days or they say they will resign. Though it’s all pomp and circumstance till you bump into the bureaucracy.

Why this still matters

This is the part no politician wants printed.

Manifestos are marketing. The truth of Bihar’s governance has always lived elsewhere, in budget allocations, administrative stamina, and the bureaucratic mazes.

Bihar’s own tax revenue is among the lowest in India, so finding money for any new scheme is a Herculean exercise. There are nearly 2 million government jobs in Bihar, not even close to what’s needed for a state with more than 13 crore people.

In the end, the ballot isn’t cast for fantasy. It’s cast for those who seem most likely to deliver even 10 percent of their promises. From left to right, every ideology seems to converge into a single fantasy franchise: ‘Bihar 2.0 — coming soon’. Maybe there’s one comfort here. That no one denies the basics anymore. Even sworn enemies concede that people deserve food, education, electricity, dignity.

But ultimately, it is the people of Bihar who’ll decide whose fantasy novel is more believable.

From ground reports to interviews, Team Newslaundry is on the ground in Bihar to track every aspect of this election. Your support will directly power our work. Click here.