By Sami Ahmad, TwoCircles.net
In Bihar, the long, snaking queues that materialized outside polling booths on November 6 and 11 were mirrored only by the immense crowds that soon choked the state’s railway stations. As soon as the voting concluded, thousands of people rushed to catch trains—the cheapest, most familiar, and most accessible route out of the state. These were not regular commuters or casual travelers. They were migrant workers, numbering in the lakhs, heading back to faraway workplaces across the country after a brief and cherished festival pause.
Most of these workers had returned home to celebrate Chhath, Bihar’s most revered and widely observed festival. When the four-day celebration concluded on October 26, the familiar, often painful cycle of departure resumed. For many, the journey back to their native villages, even if lasting for only a few days, serves as an emotional anchor and a vital connection to their roots. Yet, the inevitable return trip acts as a stark reminder that their livelihoods lie far beyond the state’s borders. Despite decades of political rhetoric, the promise of local, sustainable employment remains an elusive campaign refrain rather than a lived reality for the common people of Bihar.
The sheer scale of this departure is starkly illustrated by figures from the East Central Railway. Between October 28 and 31, more than 22 lakh people boarded trains from major transit hubs across the state, including Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur, Katihar, Saharsa, Jaynagar, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Darbhanga, Samastipur, Muzaffarpur, Begusarai, Motihari, Bettiah, Raxaul, Chhapra, and Siwan. During this intense four-day period, an average of more than five lakh migrant workers left Bihar every single day.
Yet, a significant portion of this migrant population chose to stay back just long enough to cast their votes, contributing to a surprisingly high voter turnout. Interestingly, their active participation was driven less by traditional political enthusiasm and more by a deep-seated sense of anxiety and self-preservation. The Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll had generated a widespread perception among migrant workers that failing to participate in the democratic exercise might jeopardize their voting rights in the future or even disrupt their access to essential government welfare schemes.
As the polling numbers rose, so did the intensity of the post-election rush. Fresh data released by the Danapur division indicates that between October 28 and November 16, approximately 64 lakh people departed the state aboard 334 regular trains, alongside a series of dedicated festival specials. Despite these staggering numbers and the profound socioeconomic implications of forced migration—locally known as palayan—the issue ultimately failed to translate into the systemic political transformation, or Badlao, that poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor had aggressively tried to mobilize.
Prominent opposition figures, including Tejashwi Yadav and the Mahagathbandhan alliance, had made migration the central pillar of their electoral rallying cry. They framed the phenomenon as a tragic exodus born of systemic economic stagnation under two decades of rule by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Meanwhile, the Congress party launched a targeted campaign titled Palayan Roko Naukri Do (Stop Migration, Give Jobs). Prashant Kishor went a step further, labeling the migrant workforce as the ultimate "X factor" in voter turnout and predicting a massive wave of political change. Yet, when the votes were counted, Kishor’s Jan Suraaj party failed to win a single seat, and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) swept the polls. This decisive outcome led political experts and analysts to seriously question whether the emotional and economic issue of migration actually influenced the electorate’s voting behavior at the ballot box.
Renowned psephologist Yogendra Yadav argues that while migration was undeniably a central theme of the political discourse, it ultimately failed to act as a game changer in deciding the election. Pushpendra, formerly of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), believes the issue was framed by political parties in a manner that made it appear uniformly undesirable—reducing a complex socioeconomic reality to a political cliché that was destined to fall flat. Other analysts, such as Srikant, former director of the Jagjivan Ram Institute in Patna, suggest that the phenomenon of migration itself must first be understood without political bias or sensationalism. He points out that countless professionals, including the children of government ministers and senior bureaucrats, migrate abroad regularly without facing any social stigma. Migration, he argues, is not inherently a negative human activity.
Expanding on this perspective, Pushpendra adds that human mobility has historically been a foundational pillar of civilization and economic development. The central question, therefore, is not whether people move, but whether their mobility genuinely improves their quality of life. In India, where the vast majority of the labor force operates within the informal sector, migrant workers routinely endure abject poverty, low wages, insecure working conditions, and difficult living environments in destination cities. For millions of families in Bihar, migration is not a choice born of ambition, but a harsh, necessary strategy for basic survival.
Throughout the intense election campaign, political alliances treated migration much like a symptom of a persistent fever, identifying widespread unemployment as the underlying disease and the creation of jobs as the ultimate cure. The incumbent NDA made sweeping promises, pledging to create one crore (ten million) government jobs over a five-year period, establish skilling hubs in every district, build major expressways and industrial parks, develop new IT hubs, and launch a massive investment push across the state. They also heavily targeted women’s empowerment through targeted initiatives like the Lakhpati Didi scheme.
The opposition Mahagathbandhan countered these pledges with even bolder promises of their own. Their manifesto included guaranteeing at least one government job per family within 20 days of coming to power, restoring the old pension scheme, introducing a monthly financial allowance for women, developing dedicated IT parks, providing free travel for competitive exam aspirants, and aggressively expanding the industrial sector to curb the outflow of labor. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI (M), echoed similar sentiments while strongly accusing the NDA of running a negative campaign.
Political analysts emphasize that the real, long-term solution lies in making the domestic labor market fairer, more rewarding, and better regulated, while simultaneously making urban living more affordable for working-class families. While creating employment opportunities within Bihar is an absolute necessity, experts caution that it will likely only reduce net migration rather than bring the phenomenon to a complete halt. For the issue of migration to truly resonate and carry weight in future political battles, Pushpendra argues that opposition parties must fundamentally reframe the debate and hold the central government accountable for broader regional imbalances.
Srikant notes that for the average migrant worker from Bihar, the choice at any given time usually boils down to catching a train or finding a job. If sustainable, well-paying jobs exist locally within the state, the endless queues outside railway stations will naturally begin to shrink. However, he points to an even deeper, institutional problem: the government currently lacks an honest, accurate assessment of the true number of migrant workers it produces. While extensive railway data points to a massive, continuous outflow of millions, the state government’s own official surveys frequently estimate the migrant population to be a mere 40,000 to 60,000 workers.
Addressing these systemic challenges, Bihar’s newly appointed Industry Minister, Dilip Jaiswal, stated that his foremost priority is to curb the state’s relentless migration. While candidly acknowledging that providing government jobs to every single citizen is a logistical impossibility, he has promised that the Industry Department will spearhead a special mission dedicated to generating localized employment and industrial growth within the state.
For now, however, the familiar, sobering image remains unchanged across the Gangetic plains. The festive season comes to an end, the railway platforms quickly fill to absolute capacity, and Bihar’s relentless cycle of migration rolls on.