Campaigning in Bihar has entered a full-throttle phase with little more than a week to go before voters head to the polls, and both the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Opposition Grand Alliance are hauling out their heaviest artillery. Union ministers, state chief ministers and senior party leaders have been criss-crossing the state, seeking to firm up loyalties, energise bases and sway fence-sitters. What has emerged from the first wave of mass rallies is a raw, personalised contest: the NDA is selling stability and law-and-order under Nitish Kumar’s stewardship backed by the BJP, while the Opposition is pitching itself as the vehicle of economic relief and jobs for youth — and a check on what it calls centralised interference in state affairs.

The NDA’s campaign has been fronted by heavyweight Union leaders — notably Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh — supported by several other Union ministers and the chief ministers of three BJP-ruled states. Shah has tried to project an image of implacable strength, aggressively branding the Opposition as an unprincipled “thug bandhan” and repeatedly asserting that Nitish Kumar will continue as chief minister if the NDA returns to power. In multiple rallies he painted the contest as existential for the state: a choice between what he called “paanch paandav” — a sturdy five-party alliance — and the Opposition’s alleged incapacity to govern.

Shah’s rhetorical focus has been twofold. One strand seeks to nationalise the poll debate by invoking concerns over immigration and electoral rolls; he raised the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls — which in Bihar excised nearly seven million names and added around 2.15 million — as evidence of the BJP’s vigilance against “infiltrators,” and accused Opposition figures such as Rahul Gandhi of trying to weaken those protections. The second strand is a direct assault on the Opposition’s leadership ambitions: Shah mocked the idea of leadership succession within the INDIA bloc, goading senior Opposition figures with a refrain that neither the prime minister’s office in Delhi nor the chief minister’s post in Patna are “up for grabs” as if to dissuade talk of mid-course leadership changes.

Rajnath Singh, while embracing a more measured tone than Shah, sought to anchor the NDA’s case in governance and the restoration of order. At a rally he contrasted the NDA’s promise of stability with what he characterised as the RJD’s record of “goonda raj” and disorder in the past, framing November’s vote as an opportunity to consolidate the gains against criminality and misrule. In an appeal that mixed reverence with electoral politics, he linked the hoped-for NDA triumph to a tribute to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, arguing that a decisive mandate would honor the nation’s first prime minister by delivering peace and development.

On the Opposition side, the campaign has been led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, who have conducted joint rallies underscoring jobs, welfare and curbs on crony capitalism. Gandhi’s pitch sought to tap into economic anxieties — particularly among the youth — and offered the INDIA bloc’s promise of jobs and cash doles. He attacked the BJP for what he characterised as favouritism toward big business and accused the Centre of being heavy-handed with dissent. His rhetoric mixed policy critique with theatrics; one of his lines — that the prime minister would perform for votes — was aimed at puncturing the image of an aloof national leader and connecting with crowds on an emotive level.

Tejashwi Yadav, the Opposition’s chief ministerial face, framed the election as a struggle for dignity and livelihoods. His core promise — converting contractual government employees into permanent staff and creating substantive employment opportunities — is designed to address one of Bihar’s most salient voter concerns. Yadav also delivered a sustained critique of what he called the remote-control governance by the BJP, suggesting that Nitish Kumar’s administration was increasingly answering to the Centre rather than to Bihar’s electorate. The chant of “Tejashwi CM” that rippled through several rallies underscored his personal popularity among sections of the electorate, particularly younger voters.

The campaign, however, is not without internal strains for either side. The Opposition has wrestled with seat-sharing frictions and competing ambitions — a tension evident in offhand endorsements and rumblings about leadership succession. The NDA has its own balancing act: consolidating the alliance partners’ positions while managing the undercurrent of aspirational claims from regional leaders. DK Suresh’s recent downplaying of speculation about his brother DK Shivakumar’s prospects for a chief ministerial berth in another state is an example of how leaders seek to tamp down intra-party jockeying; in Bihar, the BJP and its allies have their parallel lists of potential claimants and contingencies.

The politics of symbolism punctuate much of the campaigning. Yogi Adityanath invoked historical grievances and cultural narratives in his Siwan speech, recalling the arrest of LK Advani during the Rath Yatra and linking the Ram temple construction to a broader moral restoration. Such appeals are designed to reinforce cultural solidarity among core supporters. Meanwhile, Congress and RJD cast their appeals in terms of material redistribution and social justice — promising that the state’s economic machinery will be reoriented toward ordinary citizens, not privileged elites.

The two-phase voting — scheduled for November 6 and 11, with the results expected on November 14 — has pressured both camps into frenzied outreach. For the NDA, maintaining the Nitish-led coalition is the strategic imperative; for the INDIA bloc, denying a fifth consecutive term to Siddaramaiah’s counterpart (note: in Bihar, the immediate target is Nitish Kumar’s continued stay as chief minister) would represent a rupture in the incumbent’s political trajectory. Observers note that the outcome will hinge not only on the headline issues of jobs and law-and-order but also on micro-level alliances, caste calculations and the ability of both sides to mobilise voters in reserved and rural constituencies where localized concerns often outweigh pan-Indian narratives.

Beyond the rallies, the contest is playing out in a barrage of social media messaging, counter-accusations and claims of malpractices — Rahul Gandhi’s charges of alleged vote manipulation in neighbouring states and his taunts about central pressure on law enforcement reflect a growing readiness to nationalise alleged irregularities. The BJP, for its part, is seeking to pre-empt such narratives with a steady drumbeat about security, nationalism and development.

As campaign fervour reaches its crescendo, the stakes for Bihar — a state with a complex social fabric and a history of political volatility — could not be higher. The election will test the resonance of promises: will voters prioritise immediate economic relief and job security, or will the lure of national-level narratives about security and development carry the day? The answer will be written not just in vote shares but in the alliances and mobilisations that play out across the state’s towns and panchayats in the days ahead.