Janata Dal (United) supporters offer sweets to cut-outs of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. File | Photo credit: ANI
The two posters tell the story of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Janata Dal (United) party’s 2025 election in Bihar. The first — “25 se 30, phir se Nitish (from 2025 to 2030 it’s a Nitish government again)” — appeared in May, long before the campaign gained steam. The second — “Tiger Abhi Zinda Hai (Tiger is still alive)” — was raised a day before the results were announced.
Also read | Women’s vote, governance record and alliance cohesion lead to NDA victory
The former was both an assertion and a reflection of JD(U) anxiety. There were reports of Mr. Kumar’s declining mental acuity. There was also speculation that he would be replaced, with the BJP fielding its own candidate instead. The poster of Mr. Kumar in a blue Nehru jacket, placed on a yellow background with the slogan written in black, was meant to highlight Mr. Kumar as the undisputed Chief Minister. But Mr. Kumar’s administration needed a little more than rhetoric.
It was at this time that the seeds for the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rozgar Yojana were sown. In his first term, Mr. Kumar established a network of women’s self-help groups under the World Bank-supported Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project (BRLP), known locally as Jeevika. This network has seen Mr. Kumar through various ups and downs.
His administration decided to reconnect with this network. One-time financial assistance of ₹10,000 has been extended to 1.21 lakh beneficiaries linked to Jeevika. It cost ₹12,100 crore, roughly 4% of Bihar’s annual budget.
Careful consolidation of voters
The administration has been pursuing various programs to extend financial assistance to women, including Maharashtra’s Ladki Bahin Yojana, a monthly stipend program that strains the state’s finances. According to top JD(U) leaders, it was a deliberate decision to opt for the extension of one-time financial assistance instead of monthly payments.
The scheme was launched on September 26 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the election schedule was announced by the Election Commission of India (EC) on October 6.
The bet paid off. The program united women voters across caste lines and yielded expected dividends for the JD(U) and the NDA. The JD(U) was the only party to report a significant increase in vote share — from 15.39% in 2020 to 19.03%. The BJP’s share increased only slightly, from 19.46% to 20.42%. This is Mr Kumar’s second best performance after 2010 when the JD(U) won 115 of the 141 contested seats. According to preliminary voter turnout data published by the EC, 2.51 million women participated in these elections.
The table below shows the number of seats/constituencies with varying percentage of women in the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections.
(Swipe right to view full table)
Schemes targeting women
“It would be simplistic to credit the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rozgar Yojana alone for the performance of the JD(U). People voted for Nitish Kumar’s experience, clean image, good governance, law and order and progress,” JD(U) national spokesperson KC Tyagi said. Mr. Tyagi pointed out various schemes of the Nitish Kumar government aimed at women. “Kumar has a generational connection with women. In 2006 he first gave reservation to women representatives in panchayat and municipal bodies, in 2007 he gave 35% reservation to women in the Bihar police. His government pays for stationery and uniforms for girls. The decision to impose the ban also came directly from women,” he added.
On October 12, six days after the election schedule was announced, the NDA finalized its seat-sharing formula. For the first time since Mr Kumar joined hands with the BJP in the mid-1990s, the two parties were contesting the same number of seats – 101 each.
Since then, the narrative has shifted. There were reports of Mr Kumar chastising close aides for undermining party interests, some of which played out publicly at rallies. He also put pressure on the BJP to get the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) to return the four to five seats that were allotted to it but claimed by the JD(U) – signaling that Mr Kumar is still firmly in control.
A day before the results, the JD(U) Patna office unveiled a poster with the words ‘Tiger Abhi Zinda Hai’. Sponsored by a party leader and bearing the clutter typical of election posters – yet his claim was borne out.
Published – 14 Nov 2025 20:59 IST
