Opposition And Government Clash Over Development In Bihar
RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav asserted that the BJP is a laggard on all development indices, education and health facilities.
By Dev Raj
Published : March 12, 2026 at 2:53 PM IST
Patna: Politics in Bihar veered towards development on Thursday with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav attacking the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government over the state being at the lowest rung on various parameters. The ruling combine hit back by asserting on the progress made over the past two decades.
Tejashwi, who happens to be the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, took to X to stress that Bihar was a unique state where the double-engine government (same ruling dispensation in the state and the Centre) for decades, yet was the poorest one with the most migration, crime, corruption, unemployment, multi-dimensional poverty, and school dropouts.
He added that Bihar was the state with the lowest literacy rate, per capita income, farmers’ income, per capita investment and consumption, computer literacy, electricity consumption, basic amenities, qualitative education and industrial units.
"Lowest number of schools with computers and ICT (information and communication technology) labs in the country are in Bihar. It is a laggard on all development indices, education and health facilities,” Tejashwi wrote.
The RJD leader also pointed out that Bihar was ahead in buying costly gas, electricity, petrol and diesel. Property and land in the state were costlier than in Delhi and Mumbai, he added.
"Bihar is the worst performer on all standards, criteria, and indices of development in 21 years of the NDA government, but no one is ever held accountable for these shameful facts and ranking. Some so-called good governance people are enjoying the perks of power with the help of flip-flops, the administrative machinery, vote-buying with government treasury funds, looting of votes, and riding on casteism," he added.
Incidentally, as per the NITI Aayog Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), Bihar was the poorest state in the country in 2025. Its 33.76 per cent population was poor. Though the Aayog gave it the status of the poorest, it put some balm by saying that it was the fastest improving state. More than 51 per cent of its population was poor in 2015.
The MPI uses three equally weighted dimensions – health including nutrition, child and adolescent mortality; education including years of schooling and school attendance; standard of living including cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing and assets – to gauge poverty. A person is considered poor if he or she is deprived of one-third or more of the indicators.
The reasons of Bihar’s poverty are socio-economic and political. They could be found in annual floods and droughts, small landholdings, historical neglect, high illiteracy, lack of industrial growth, scarce minerals, agriculture-dependent economy, and unemployment among other things.
Similarly, the per capita income in Bihar at current prices was Rs 76,490 and Rs 40,973 at constant prices of 2010-11 as per the state’s economic survey 2025-26. Though it has been rising over the years, it is still at the bottom of all the states and Union Territories in the country. It was also much less than national per capita income of Rs 2.05 lakh as per the latest economic survey.
In literacy rate also, Bihar figures among the bottom states. As per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) report 2024-25, the literacy rate of the state was 74.3 per cent, though Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand were placed below it.
Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) national executive president and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Kumar Jha also came out on X to counter Tejashwi's post.
He quoted an article by an economist and member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, Shamika Ravi, to stress the strides of progress taken by Bihar in the past years under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's legacy of political stability and good governance.
Jha pointed out how Bihar, during Nitish's tenure, made "substantial gains in living standards, sharply reduced poverty, improved nutritional affordability, and narrowed some of its gaps with the national average."
Between 2011-14, Bihar rural real monthly per capita expenditure grew at 4.5 per cent annually, about 50 per cent faster than all-India pace of 3.1 per cent, while our urban real CAGR of 4.6 per cent surpassed India's 2.6 per cent, Jha said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also rejected Tejashwi’s remarks and highlighted the progress made by Bihar in various sectors.
"The current situation should be compared to the RJD rule between 1990 and 2005, when the state was governed by Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi. Over 60 per cent of the population of the state was poor at that time, while the literacy rate was just 47 per cent. The situation started improving after the NDA government led by Nitishji came to power in 2005. The saga of progress is continuing till now," BJP spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said.
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