Bihar: Employment, Jobs Take Centre Stage in State Politics

Patna: More than a year ahead of next Bihar Assembly polls, employment and jobs have taken centre stage in the state politics. Both ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Opposition Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) are playing this card to reach out to people, mainly youths. They are also countering each other over taking credit for providing government jobs in recent years.

Barely two weeks after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the focus on the issues of employment and jobs (Rozgar aur Naukri) are set to give a new twist to politics in next year’s Assembly polls in the caste-ridden state.
Taking things forward, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar early this week decided to distribute appointment letters for 1.99 lakh government jobs in the next three months and directed the top officials concerned to fill up five lakh more vacancies in mission mode in the next one year. This is a part of his promise to fulfil the target of 10 lakh government jobs. (During 2020-25).

Kumar’s office has claimed that so far 5.16 lakh people have been given government jobs.

However, Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav countered this claim on Tuesday, questioning how he had provided nearly five lakh government jobs, mainly school teachers, during his 17-month rule as Deputy Chief Minister till January 2024, and it was part of his commitment to provide 10 lakh government jobs to youths.

In a post on his X handle, Tejashwi Yadav said: “Yeh wahi NDA aur
Mukhayamantri (Kumar) hai jo kahte the 10 lakh sarkari naukriya dena ashambhav (impossible) hai, itni naukriyon ka paisa Tejashwi kahan se laega”. (This is the same NDA Chief Minister who used to say that it is impossible to give 10 lakh jobs, where will Tejashwi get the money from?)

The RJD leader also questioned the failure of earlier innings of the NDA government, from 2020 to mid-2022, to provide jobs. “There was no move to provide government jobs to youths during this period, that is the hard truth”, he said.

He said when Kumar joined hands with RJD in 2022 and formed the Mahagathbandhan government, “we had convinced him how to provide 10 lakh government jobs and successfully
provided jobs. It was we (Mahagathbandhan-led government) who initiated the move to fill vacancies and provide government jobs on a large scale,” he added.

Interestingly, during the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign, Kumar and his major ally, BJP, were mostly silent on the issue of employment and jobs, except for one or two reference made in
connection of their old promise on this front. This was not their election issue. Kumar once countered Tejashwi’s claim of providing jobs and said that he has no role in it in the state.

On the other side, young Tejashwi Yadav made employment and jobs one of the main issues in his election campaign while addressing 251 election rallies all alone as a lead campaigner of the Mahagathbandhan to counter NDA’s narrative of Hindu-Muslim and personal attacks. Without missing any chance, the RJD leader reminded people of how he provided nearly five lakh government jobs, mainly school teachers, during his 17 month tenure as Deputy CM.

Tejashwi Yadav played this card to expose Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Kumar over rampant unemployment and their failure to fulfil their promise of employment and jobs. He repeatedly questioned Modi on his promise in 2014 to give two crore jobs per year and questioned his silence. Neither Modi nor any top BJP leader mentioned anything on promise of jobs during the election campaign.

Political watchers here said that the issues of employment and jobs had made Tejashwi Yadav popular not only among youths but also the middle-aged parents of unemployed youths, raising a new hope. He promised one crore jobs to youths if the Opposition INDIA bloc come to power, because a large number of posts were lying vacant.

Faced with the Opposition’s aggressive campaign, Nitish Kumar and the state BJP president were forced to promise more jobs ahead of the 2025 Assembly elections. 

In February 2024, after being ousted from power nearly a month ago by the NDA in Bihar, employment and jobs were the main focus of Tejashwi Yadav’s Jan Vishwas Yatra that drew massive crowds across the state.

Though NDA won 30 out of 40 seats in Bihar in the Lok Sabha polls, while the Mahagathbandhan won nine seats and one seat was won by an independent close to Congress. This was a big jump for the Opposition as the NDA failed to replicate its last performance when it won 39 seats. This apart, the vote share of Mahagathbandan also increased and NDA’s vote share decreased.

Sensing a hidden political message in the poll outcome, the NDA is suddenly focusing on the issue to prepare a narrative in its favour ahead of the next Assembly polls, say political watchers.

As per Election Commission data, RJD’s vote share increased from 15.68% in the last elections to 22.14% this time, while Congress’s vote share rose from 7.85% to 9.20%.

Taking this number seriously, Kumar appears to have shifted focus on employment and jobs. But Tejashwi Yadav keeps reminding Kumar of when he asked about where the funds or resources for providing government jobs would come from.

Bihar is known for rampant unemployment and high rate of migration outside the state in search of jobs and livelihood. According to the state caste survey report released last year, poverty is rampant in Bihar, with 34.13% of all families in the state classified as poor. The number of poor families is highest among Scheduled Castes and Tribes, followed by Other Backward Classes and Extremely Backward Castes.