Migrants at Patna Junction rush to catch trains home. Most of them live in the North-East and North-West Frontier Districts of Bihar. | Photo credit: Amarnath Tewary
As Bihar migrants start returning home ahead of the two major festivals of Diwali (festival of lights) and Chhath (sacrifice to the sun deity), the big question is who will get their votes in the state assembly elections scheduled for November 6 and 11.
A new entrant in Bihar’s political arena, former election strategist Prashant Kishor of the Jan Suraaj Party, has made inroads among this key segment of the electorate, but migrant voters are still keeping their cards close. Groups of migrants passing through Patna Junction on their way to their homes, mostly in the state’s northeast and northwest border districts, say they will take a final decision only after reaching home and consulting their family members, friends and villagers. They predict that the fight this time will be between NDA and mahagathbandhan (opposition alliance) as “but it will be tough”.
According to the 2022-23 Bihar Caste Survey report, 53 million families and 2.65 million people lived outside Bihar as migrants. However, the 2011 census estimated their population at 74.54 lakh and some reports say their number is as high as a million, with some political parties claiming that there are three million migrants from the state. Three of the state’s northwestern districts — Saran, Siwan and Gopalganj — receive the highest remittances from migrant workers in the Gulf countries.
‘Stay back and vote’
In some constituencies, these voters are expected to play a major role and are wooed by parties for the few weeks they are in the state. The BJP-led NDA government at the center has announced that it will run several trains for migrants. “Chhath is when all public meetings are suspended, our candidates will move around the Ghats (river banks where Chhath devotees go to pray to the deity of the rising and setting sun) to meet them in person,” said BJP leader Vivek Thakur. RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari said opposition party leaders would also “pursue migrants to stay for a few more days after Chhath to cast their vote”.
Trains that depart regularly for Punjab, Delhi and other destinations from Saharsa railway station in North East Bihar are popularly known as “Palayan (Migration) Express” trains. However, on Saturday noon, platform number 4 at Patna Junction is thronged with a huge crowd of migrants waiting for the Raj Rani Express going in the opposite direction. Satyam Kumar, 28, is among those heading home to Saharsa after a year in Noida, where he works as a construction worker. Eyes fixed on his jazzy cell phone, he adjusts the rexin bag on his back and says he’s decided to stay home for a few weeks so he can cast his vote in the first phase of voting on November 6.
“Jan Suraaj’s Prashant Kishor talks sense,” he says, gathering nods from his friends and fellow migrants Himanshu Prasad, Sanjiv Kumar and Amritanshu Anupam. “We used to watch his videos quite often on our mobile phones while working in Noida, but we will cast our vote once we reach our homeland and consult our family members, friends and local people to form our firm opinion on who or which party we should vote for,” he says, before rushing to find a place on the platform to wait for the train.
“Prashant Kishor needs more time”
Dipankar Bhattacharya of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), which is part of the opposition alliance, claimed that Jan Suraaj’s Party had more “attraction” among migrants from Bihar than people actually living in the state.
Sanjeev Bind and his friends are more concerned about the law and order situation in their homes in the neighboring district of Katihar. “The law and order situation in our city has improved but it has worsened again. Whoever improves it will get our vote. We want to give Mr. Kishor more time before we vote for his party candidate, even if whatever he says is right and connects with us,” he says, sipping tap water from a green bottle. He and his friends work in a small restaurant in the Azadpur area of Delhi.
A long line of migrants sit on steel chairs outside the station, waiting to enter. Subham Pandey, who earns ₹18,000 a month as a security guard for a multinational company in Gurgaon, clutches his bags as he waits for a train bound for his hometown in Gopalganj district. “Yes, I and my friends from this area have been watching videos of Prashant Kishor on our mobile phones and even we are impressed by what he says and how he has been meeting people as a political leader for the last two-three years when he travels to different districts of the state. But we have decided not to vote for him this time,” says Mr. Pany, who has to work for a few years and prove himself in politics first. His friends look the other way, apparently avoiding political commentary at the train station.
The Bihar Assembly election results will be declared on November 14.
Published – 18 Oct 2025 20:49 IST
