COVER STORY
Bihar Election 2025
If one looks at the ticket distribution by various political parties in the fray, it would not be an anomaly to understand how caste alliances are formed
Outlook Magazine - 'Caste is the biggest political party in Bihar' - 11 November 2025 Issue
Outlook’s November 11 issue, titled "Caste is the Biggest Political Party in Bihar," explores how caste plays multiple interconnected roles in seat-sharing and coalition-building in the land of the setting sun. In the issue, Tanvir Aeijaz looks at Dalit politics in Bihar. From Patna, Mohammad Ali writes on how political parties are anchoring caste equations, Ashlin Mathew explores how Nitish Kumar has turned welfare into a powerful electoral strategy, Umesh Kumar Ray explores how the EBC are a crucial vote bank, while Snigdhendu explores land reforms in the light of caste politics. With powerful columns from Indrajit Roy, Subir Sinha, Manoj Jha, Abhayanand, Ravi Ranjan, and an interview with Pawan Varma, this issue maps the forthcoming Bihar election. Read all these and more on books, entertainment in Outlook's latest issue.
Bihar Election 2025Artificial Yamuna, photo-ops doing Chhath rituals ahead of Bihar elections have now become an electoral strategy with PM Modi upping his attack on the Opposition saying they have called the Bihari festival "a drama" in response to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's remarks that the BJP was "doing drama" of Chhath puja for votes. Bihar Assembly Elections 2025 have become a spectacle which now has the festival at its centre. Subir Sinha writes on the political and social appropriation of Chhath.
Bihar Election 2025For all the talk of ‘development first’ politics by NDA and Mahagathbandhan, Bihar remains a state where caste is the primary currency, especially so during Assembly elections
Bihar Election 2025By addressing themselves as ‘hum’, Biharis offer a collective motivation to act together in times of crisis and breakdown and demonstrate the ethical politics of hope as they navigate economic vulnerability, social conflict and political uncertainty
Bihar Election 2025Land reforms, a largely unimplemented and mostly shelved programme, is considered central to Bihar’s growth. Yet, it has little currency during election campaigning
Bihar Election 2025Elections stripped of ideology signal the rise of “marketisation” of politics—parties become brands, candidates turn into commodities and voters are treated as consumers to be enticed
Bihar Election 2025The former poll strategist of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is carving out a third corner in the Bihar contest by building a party of the ‘corporate’ type to woo voters from both sides of the NDA/INDIA fight
Bihar Election 2025Political parties in Bihar are trying hard to woo members of Extremely Backward Classes, a loose collection of more than a 100 small, heterogeneous castes
Bihar Election 2025The political foundation in Bihar is caste which carries the burden of its own class
Bihar Election 2025Prashant Kishore’s Jan Suraaj shuns both the communal line of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as the socialist agenda of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and focuses on a few key areas like education, health and development.
- Bihar Election 2025
Artificial Yamuna, photo-ops doing Chhath rituals ahead of Bihar elections have now become an electoral strategy with PM Modi upping his attack on the Opposition saying they have called the Bihari festival "a drama" in response to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's remarks that the BJP was "doing drama" of Chhath puja for votes. Bihar Assembly Elections 2025 have become a spectacle which now has the festival at its centre. Subir Sinha writes on the political and social appropriation of Chhath.
- Bihar Election 2025
For all the talk of ‘development first’ politics by NDA and Mahagathbandhan, Bihar remains a state where caste is the primary currency, especially so during Assembly elections
- Bihar Election 2025
By addressing themselves as ‘hum’, Biharis offer a collective motivation to act together in times of crisis and breakdown and demonstrate the ethical politics of hope as they navigate economic vulnerability, social conflict and political uncertainty
- Bihar Election 2025
Land reforms, a largely unimplemented and mostly shelved programme, is considered central to Bihar’s growth. Yet, it has little currency during election campaigning
- Bihar Election 2025
Elections stripped of ideology signal the rise of “marketisation” of politics—parties become brands, candidates turn into commodities and voters are treated as consumers to be enticed
- Bihar Election 2025
The former poll strategist of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is carving out a third corner in the Bihar contest by building a party of the ‘corporate’ type to woo voters from both sides of the NDA/INDIA fight
- Bihar Election 2025
Political parties in Bihar are trying hard to woo members of Extremely Backward Classes, a loose collection of more than a 100 small, heterogeneous castes
- Bihar Election 2025
The political foundation in Bihar is caste which carries the burden of its own class
- Bihar Election 2025
Prashant Kishore’s Jan Suraaj shuns both the communal line of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as the socialist agenda of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and focuses on a few key areas like education, health and development.
OTHER STORIES
- Bihar Election 2025
With the Chief Minister Women’s Employment Scheme, JEEViKA and similar programmes, Nitish Kumar has turned welfare into a powerful electoral strategy, forcing his rivals to follow suit
- Bihar Election 2025
Can Nitish Kumar once again defy anti-incumbency in Bihar’s 2025 election?
- bihar election 2025
Successful attempts have been made in the past to end the Jungle Raj in Bihar by implementing processes like speedy trials and convictions of criminals. However, it is very much a part of Bihar politics even today
- Bihar Election 2025
Is the SIR a new avatar of the NRC by another name, being pushed through under the garb of cleansing the electoral rolls?
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Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University, Shafey Kidwai ponders on the lessons and trials he encountered during his time as an educator before retirement
