Bihar Elections 2025: Free power, cash for youth and women – how much will Nitish Kumar's pre-poll sops cost?

On September 21, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced a one-time allowance of ₹25,000 for more than 10,000 ‘Vikas Mitras’ working in the villages to buy tablets.

The transportation allowance of the Vikas Mitras will be been increased from ₹1,900 to ₹2,500 per month, and their stationery allowance will be hiked from ₹900 to ₹1,500 per month.

The benefits also include ₹10,000 financial aid to over 30,000 Shiksha Sevaks and Talimi Markaz, who connect children belonging to Mahadalit, minorities, and extremely backward communities to formal school education, for purchasing smartphones.

This is not the first sop that Nitish Kumar-led government has announced ahead of Assembly elections scheduled later this year.

In fact, the state government has opened its coffers, focusing on women and the youth through a series of new schemes. Here is a list of some of the major schemes and the cost linked to them:

Unemployment allowance for the youth

As per this sceheme, ₹1,000 per month for two years for graduates and those who have completed Class 12 but remain unemployed will be given, as an extension of the Mukhyamantri Nishchay Swayam Sahayata Bhatta Yojana. The scehem was announced on September 18.

With an estimated 12 lakh youth expected to benefit, the government is set to spend over ₹2,800 crore over the next two years on this scheme, according to media reports.

Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana for women entrepreneurs

The first instalment of ₹10,000 each under this scheme is being handed over this week.

Another 50 lakh women entrepreneurs will also benefit from the scheme in later instalments, and in six months, the government will grant ₹2 lakh to each entrepreneur after assessing their business initiatives.

The first instalment to be given to 50 lakh women is set to cost the exchequer ₹5,000 crore. The total cost of the scheme is ₹21,000 crore, according to a report in Indian Express.

Other Schemes

- ₹5,000 crore will be spent to provide 125MW of free electricity to 1.89 crore consumers.

-Another ₹9,300 crore would be spent on additional expenditure on raising the Social Security Scheme pensions from ₹400 to ₹1,100 per month for 1.11 crore beneficiaries,

- ₹800 crore on a ₹5,000 clothing allowance each to 16 lakh construction workers, and raised honorariums to Jeevika, Anganwadi and ASHA workers.

Overall, these expenditures are expected to raise the government’s annual expenditure by ₹40,000 crore, the Indian Express report said.

The state’s annual revenue is about ₹56,000 crore, with its annual Budget standing at ₹3.2 lakh crore in 2025-26. Its debt-to-GDP ratio in 2025-26 is 37 per cent, up from around 30%-32 per cent in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

(With agency inputs)