Statement of the Lok Raj Sangathan, 25th October, 2025
The Bihar Assembly elections have been announced amid growing public concern over the manipulation of elections and the loss of faith in the Election Commission. Across the country, people are questioning whether the election process truly reflects their will. The Election Commission and the entire electoral machinery are in disrepute, with charges of bias, deletion of voters, and selective application of rules. Bihar has become the testing ground for what is being called the “purification” of voter rolls, a process that has, in practice, disenfranchised lakhs of citizens.
These elections are being held after a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in which the total number of voters fell from 7.8 crore to 7.41 crore. Nearly 60% of those deleted are women—about twenty-two to twenty-three lakh. Large numbers of Dalits, minorities, and poor rural voters have also found their names missing. While the Election Commission claims this was to remove duplicates, the outcome has been mass exclusion. The issue goes beyond Bihar: it reflects the deepening crisis of credibility in India’s electoral process.
Meanwhile, the state remains trapped in poverty, unemployment, and migration. Bihar continues to rank at or near the bottom on almost every indicator of development. The labour-force participation rate is among the lowest in the country, and the worker-population ratio for ages fifteen and above stands at barely 52%. Youth unemployment is officially around 10%, but in reality, far more young people have given up looking for work. Agriculture, the mainstay of the rural population, no longer guarantees even a basic livelihood. Crop prices are uncertain, irrigation is inadequate, and rising input costs have pushed the peasantry into debt. Small and marginal farmers, who form the majority, are struggling to survive. Industry is stagnant, new investment negligible, and the informal sector continues to absorb the labour that should have been employed productively.
The social picture is no better. The sex ratio at birth is only 908 female births for every 1,000 males. Literacy is 61.8 %, compared with the national average of 73%. The dropout rate in secondary school is around 40%, and maternal and infant mortality rates remain among the highest in India. Migration to other states for low-paid work continues on a massive scale, tearing apart families and draining Bihar of its youth.
In this grim setting, the familiar political players are again taking the field. The ruling National Democratic Alliance—BJP and JD(U) under Nitish Kumar—proclaims its record of “development”, law and order, and welfare schemes. The opposition bloc led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress calls for social justice and jobs. New entrants like the Jan Suraaj Party promise a “clean alternative”. But all these forces share a common feature: they operate within and defend a political system that keeps power concentrated in the hands of a privileged minority.
The Congress and other opposition parties restrict their criticism to the ruling BJP and to the Election Commission as it now functions. They do not question the fundamental flaw of the system itself—the fact that real decision-making power does not rest with the people. Both ruling and opposition alliances rely on dividing the electorate along caste, religion, and regional lines. The campaign is being used to divert people’s anger over unemployment, peasant distress, and price rise towards scapegoats such as “illegal immigrants” or rival communities.
Governments of many colours have ruled Bihar in the past few decades. At every election they have promised jobs, education, and better governance. But none have changed the conditions of the people. The Nitish Kumar government, despite nearly twenty years in office, has failed to bring about lasting improvement. Schemes worth thousands of crores have been launched, yet the majority still live without secure work, quality education, or reliable public services.
The rights of workers are under constant attack. The new labour codes have stripped away many protections won through decades of struggle—job security, collective bargaining, and limits on working hours. Public sector enterprises are being systematically privatised, sold off to profit-seeking interests without the consent of the people. The policy of privatisation, started under the Congress, has been pursued relentlessly by every government since. It has meant the steady transfer of public wealth into private hands, while the state withdraws from its responsibility to provide education, health, and employment.
Elections under such a system offer only the illusion of choice. People cast their votes but have no say in how the government is run or whose interests it serves. The elected representatives are accountable to the political parties that fund and control them, not to the electorate. The parties themselves are financed by big business and wealthy interests that expect returns once the government is in place. This is not democracy; it is rule by an exploiting minority.
The Constitution begins with the words “We, the People,” but in practice sovereignty is not vested in the people. Decision-making power lies with a small group that controls the state apparatus, the economy, and the machinery of elections. To restore real sovereignty to the people, a complete transformation of the political system is necessary. People must have the right to select candidates before elections, not merely choose between pre-selected options. There must be no private financing of elections. Elected representatives must be accountable to the electorate, not to party bosses. Citizens must have the right to recall those who betray their trust, and the right to initiate or annul laws that work against their interests.
Until these changes are made, the results of the Bihar elections—whichever alliance wins—will make little difference to the lives of the people. Bihar’s workers, peasants, and youth will continue to face the same grim realities unless political power itself is wrested from the minority that exploits them and placed firmly in the hands of the majority who produce the wealth of society.
Source of image: https://scroll.in/latest/1077353/bihar-civil-service-aspirants-stage-protest-seeking-re-exam-lathi-charged-by-police
