Bihar Election 2025: Are women going to be the kingmakers in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections? Well, some political experts think so, more so considering Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's popularity among women voters and the welfare schemes announced by his government for them ahead of the 2025 assembly polls.
Janata Dal United chief Nitish Kumar leads the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in Bihar. The NDA is up against the INDIA bloc led by the RJD in the upcoming Bihar Elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the "Mukhya Mantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana" on Friday (September 26), transferring ₹10,000 each to the bank accounts of 75 lakh women. The ₹7,500-crore scheme aims to provide financial assistance to one woman from each family in Bihar, enabling them to start employment or livelihood activities of their choice.
Soon after the scheme was launched on Friday, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hit out at the NDA government, urging the women of Bihar not to be swayed by doles offered to them just ahead of the Bihar elections. The election to the 243-member Bihar Assembly is likely to be held in October-November.
But will the women actually be wooed by such schemes by the NDA?
The NDA's latest scheme in poll-bound Bihar — a cash transfer of ₹10,000 each to 75 lakh women — takes a leaf out of the successful political playbook deployed by several parties, not the least the BJP, to gain an advantage over their rivals.
For instance, the Congress's promise of cash assistance to women, among a few other guarantees, helped the party oust the BJP from power in Karnataka in 2023. A similar scheme was pivotal to the JMM's successful bid to retain government in Jharkhand in 2024.
For the BJP-led NDA, the ‘Ladli Behna Yojna’ in Madhya Pradesh and ‘Ladki Bahin Yojna’ in Maharashtra were seen by most political experts as game-changers in ensuring another term for the incumbent in both states in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Both states launched these schemes in the years of their assembly polls.
Ascendia Strategies noted in its ground report that women's turnout in Bihar is 5% -6% higher than that of men.
Meanwhile, Amitabh Tiwari, Managing Partner at Ascendia Strategies and Founder Partner of Vote Vibe, said at India Today Conclave Mumbai that on 167 of the 243 assembly seats in Bihar, "the women turnout was more than men, and the NDA won 90 of those seats."
"Women's vote can be the kingmakers again," he said.
Some opinion polls and political experts believe that Nitish Kumar remains the top choice for women voters in the state.
Ascendia Strategies' report said the NDA's ₹10,000 cash transfer for women "could serve as a decisive electoral factor if implemented before voting, just like the Ladli Bahin Scheme of MP and Maharashtra."
It also highlighted that Nitish Kumar retains popularity among his core constituencies of Koeri/Kurmi communities and women voters.
"However, there is growing sentiment that he should step aside to allow younger leadership to take charge," revealed Ascendia Strategies' ground assessment.
This was reflected in the opinion poll released in September, which suggested that Nitish Kumar's popularity among women dropped significantly.
A Vote Vibe opinion poll released on September 14 revealed that 26% of women polled chose Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar as the Bihar CM—a drop from 44% revealed in an InkInsight poll in May 2025.
Yashwant Deshmukh, the founder of CVoter Foundation, believes that Nitish Kumar "happens to be the first person with a very, very significant approach towards the female vote bank."
He said the "emotional connect" women of Bihar have with Nitish Kumar "is altogether very different."
He said Nitish Kumar is "not Shivraj Singh Chouhan or Eknath Shinde" [who introduced women-centric schemes in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra] for a simple reason.
He flashed back 25 years to when Nitish Kumar distributed bicycles and 'paushak' [uniforms] to school-going girls in Bihar.
"Started 25 years back when he [Nitish Kumar] ...and why I feel it is very different because Mr Shinde's yojana or Shivraj Singh Chouhan's yojana was out of the blue one time payment thing, while when I look at the brand Nitish Kumar, the girl, the daughters of Bihar who got a bicycle and the uniform 25 years back, are now the housemakers, the entrepreneurs, the mothers — and their connection, emotional connect with Nitish Kumar is altogether very different," Yashwant Deshmukh said.
He added, “Even though Mr. Shivraj Singh Chouhan was more popularly known as 'mama', but Nitish Kumar's personal connect on the female voter is way more intense and way more deep-rooted than any other politician in India.”
September's Vote Vibe opinion poll suggested that "unemployment and migration" were the top-most election issues among women, hence justifying the NDA's focus on empowering women through self-employment under the ‘Mahila Rozgar’ scheme and addressing unemployment among youth under the 'Mukhyamantri Nishchay Swayam Sahayta Bhatta Yojana'.
The INDIA bloc, led by Congress and the RJD, has not released its manifesto yet.
