(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated October 20, 2025)

The timing was telling. For Nitish Kumar, chief minister of Bihar, it was a final flourish of governance before the Model Code of Conduct came into effect. At 10 am on October 6, barely six hours before the Election Commission of India announced the polling schedule for Bihar, Nitish transferred Rs 10,000 each into the accounts of 2.1 million women, taking the total number of beneficiaries of the Mahila Rojgar Yojana to 12.1 million. An hour later, he inaugurated the first phase of the Patna Metro and also took a ride on it, putting Bihar’s capital on the map of Indian cities with metro connectivity. The messaging was unambiguous: he was not just Bihar’s past but its future too.

A day earlier, T

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