Refrains At Loggerheads: Bihar Election 2025 Through Its Campaign Songs

The 2025 assembly elections in Bihar are almost here and the battle for the throne is mostly being viewed as a direct contest between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Mahagathbandhan. Even so, Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party and Tej Pratap Yadav’s Janshakti Janata Dal (JJD) remain significant contenders apart from the big players. While the air in the state is heavy with promises, kept and unkept, jingles from across the spectrum are turning the heat on the campaigns in a bid to reach out to the last voter.

Bhojpuri artist Manoj Tiwari is rallying with his tunes for the ruling NDA, which includes the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United (JDU), Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Manch (RLM). The NDA’s campaign song, “Haan, Hum Bihari Hain Ji”, traces the state’s cultural history and traditions, saluting its people, who leave their homes to build cities, yet remain strongly tethered to their homeland. There’s recognition of the service that working class men and women of Bihar put in, taking forward the vast cultural heritage and ethos, from Nalanda to Dinkar to Kunwar Singh.

On the other end, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, Mukesh Sahani's Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and the Left parties have come together in the Mahagathbandhan, or the grand alliance. The official RJD song that is energizing the constituencies props Tejashwi Yadav as the “Bihari lion” that can make the Opposition cower. He is the “boatman” of Bihar’s future. The people are hurt by “Chacha’s” ( CM Nitish Kumar) attitude. The engine has become a wreck. Hence, the CM must change. The song stresses the RJD’s key poll promises, including 'Mai-Bahin Maan Yojana', employment opportunities for the youth, 200 units of free electricity, social security and a monthly pension of Rs 1,500.

Jan Suraaj’s Prashant Kishor has got Bhojpuri singer and actor Ritesh Panday extolling his humility. The supersized mythos of the imaging RJD pushes for Tejashwi is replaced here with a more sobering figure. One song in favour of Prashant Kishor, put up by the YouTube channel “Song of the Soil Labs”, talks of the interchangeability and collusion between Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar’s political mainstay. The Jan Suraaj songs repeatedly affirm Kishor as being extensively well-versed with Bihar’s villages, at times ascribing a Gandhian slant to him. The relative modesty in these songs strike a sharp contrast against the very fabric RJD has spun among its legions.

Then, there’s the endless stream of songs by supporters of various parties, 80 percent of which are in Bhojpuri. The RJD supporters are churning out songs rife with political grotesquery. These videos have netted lakhs and lakhs of views. The language of hate and retribution is almost too vicious and overt to stomach on first encounter. There are insinuations of bloodshed and hooliganism if the party is to return to power—a resurgent “Yadav Raj” gloating in violence and abduction of any dissident. Guns and lathis are common parlance in these songs, as is casteism. The language and implications are nakedly coarser. While the official song is draped in niceties, the party’s supporters don’t hold back on real-time repercussions. There’s no dressing up the muscle power and the intimidation tactics the RJD will deploy. “Power belongs only to the Ahirs,” say the unequivocally confrontational lyrics, while propounding annihilation of all rivals with impunity. At an NDA campaign in Samastipur, Modi himself has taken issue with the songs, highlighting a concerted effort to revive the older days, where criminality was sanctioned by Lalu Yadav’s government.

These videos in Bhojpuri and Magahi have mushroomed exponentially, but the RJD side-steps it, claiming they don’t have official backing. Its statements haven’t dented the songs’ fanning popularity at pro-RJD gatherings. Needless to say, what also echoes across the songs is a definite positioning of women being mere arm candy. While boys flash weapons, girls prance about to do their bidding. Across the many parties, few basic promises recur: that of good roads, functional schools, farmer security. Principally, there is the emphatic assertion of people from the state being proud of their roots wherever they go.

Promising employment, the BJP takes a shade at the ‘Jungle Raj’ of Yadav’s reign. Images of beatings are put to lyrics that equate the Yadav Raj with hawks feeding on the vulnerable. On their social media handles, the BJP has put out several videos cultivating the RJD crucible in yesteryear horrors. The song lashes out at poor development and the heightened corruption under Lalu Yadav. The more buoyant strains are a catch-all, with the party establishing respect for women, farmers, the elderly. Pension security is also dangled. Under the NDA government, Bihar picks up pace. Established contrasts are clear. The state, which was smashed under the Yadav Raj, now has tempo and confidence. To tie it up, there’s the ongoing Sita temple construction. Under NDA, the state thrives. Everything is in perfect order.

Rebutting this illusion of control, Congress’ foot-tapping anthem directly calls for Modi to cede his throne. It starts off with demanding transparent voting processes and results, questioning the many faces fraudulency takes via BJP’s aegis. Invoking the paper leaks, the song hits theft as a refrain—of votes, jobs and illegal land acquisitions for private use. It directs attention to deputy CM Samrat Chowdhury’s fake degrees. What gets spelt over and over again is brutal mismanagement and misallocation of budgets, entailing poor roads and collapsing bridges. The BJP is the true enemy of the people—blocking reservation for Dalits and the marginalised, isolating and targeting farmers. Reservation is also the operative word in the Vikassheel Insaan Party’s (VIP) campaign song, “Hai Haq Humara Aarakshan” (Reservation is our right).

While the parties and their songs add momentum to the countdown up till the D-Day, only time will tell whether these songs will translate into potential victories.