By Dipak Kurmi
As Bihar prepares for its crucial two-phase Assembly election, a seismic demographic shift has transformed the state’s political calculus in ways that traditional power brokers are only beginning to fully comprehend. The spotlight has dramatically pivoted toward Bihar’s young and restless electorate, specifically Generation Z, a cohort whose voting preferences and political priorities threaten to upend established patterns that have defined the state’s electoral outcomes for decades. With nearly one in every four voters belonging to this generation born after 1997, Gen-Z has emerged not as a marginal demographic to be courted alongside others, but as the single most decisive factor in determining who will govern Bihar for the next five years and potentially shape its trajectory for decades beyond.
The electoral timeline itself underscores the high stakes involved. Bihar’s voters will exercise their franchise across two carefully orchestrated phases, with 121 constituencies voting on November 6 and the remaining 122 seats going to polls on November 11. Out of the state’s impressive total of 7.41 crore registered voters, approximately 1.75 crore belong to Generation Z, constituting roughly 24 percent of the entire electorate. This proportion becomes even more pronounced in certain districts where youth demographics dominate the voter rolls. In Nawada district, for instance, young voters represent a staggering presence, numbering nearly 3.64 lakh out of 17.16 lakh total registered voters, according to the Election Commission’s most recent roll revision data. When one considers that over half of Bihar’s total population falls under the age of forty, it becomes abundantly clear that this election is being fundamentally shaped by the aspirations, anxieties, and demands of a generation that has come of age during a period of unprecedented technological transformation and heightened awareness of governance failures.
What distinguishes Bihar’s Generation Z from preceding electoral cohorts extends far beyond mere chronological classification. Unlike their parents and grandparents, who retain visceral memories of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s tumultuous reign or the Congress party’s historical dominance in Bihar politics, Gen-Z voters possess no direct experiential knowledge of these earlier political eras. Their entire political consciousness has been formed during Nitish Kumar’s extended tenure as Chief Minister, making his governance record the only benchmark they know firsthand. This generational disconnect from Bihar’s political past has profound implications for how these young voters evaluate their options and define their priorities.
Gen-Z Biharis are characterized by a notable impatience with incremental change and performative politics. Having grown up immersed in the digital ecosystem of smartphones, social media platforms, and instant information access, they approach politics with a fundamentally different sensibility than previous generations. They demand measurable progress rather than rhetorical flourishes, concrete outcomes rather than vague promises, and transparent accountability rather than opaque patronage networks. For this digitally savvy demographic, pressing concerns like chronic unemployment, forced economic migration to distant cities, inadequate education infrastructure, and pervasive corruption carry far more weight than the traditional caste arithmetic that has dominated Bihar’s electoral calculations for generations or the legacy politics that asks them to vote based on their parents’ loyalties rather than their own interests.
A revealing Lokniti-CSDS survey conducted in 2020 demonstrated that 21 percent of Bihar’s voters identified unemployment and the conspicuous lack of industrial development as their paramount concern, a sentiment that has only intensified and grown more urgent in 2025 as successive graduating cohorts find themselves competing for a stagnant pool of opportunities. This data point illuminates why political parties have been compelled to center employment generation and economic opportunity in their campaign messaging, recognizing that failure to address these bread-and-butter issues credibly could prove electorally fatal.
The National Democratic Alliance, anchored by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s leadership, has constructed its youth outreach around promises of employment generation and expanded welfare schemes. In a pre-election move clearly designed to neutralize criticism about joblessness, his government announced a ₹1,000 monthly allowance for unemployed graduates and made the audacious commitment to create one crore new jobs, though skeptics question the financial and administrative feasibility of such an enormous undertaking. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national stature and signature programs including Digital India and the MUDRA Yojana, which provides microfinance loans to small entrepreneurs, continue to resonate with first-time voters who associate these initiatives with modernity and economic opportunity. Within the alliance, BJP ally Chirag Paswan has reinvigorated his “Bihar First” campaign with specific focus on promoting entrepreneurship and modernizing educational infrastructure to appeal directly to young voters’ aspirations for upward mobility and innovation-driven growth.
Standing in opposition, the Mahagathbandhan has coalesced around Tejashwi Yadav, whose youth-centric campaign has made employment generation its absolute centerpiece. As the coalition’s chief ministerial candidate, Tejashwi has issued an unambiguous pledge that resonates powerfully with families anxious about their children’s futures: every household in Bihar will have at least one government job if his alliance assumes power. Beyond this employment guarantee, Tejashwi has promised to establish one medical college and one engineering college in each of Bihar’s districts, alongside a significant expansion of polytechnic institutions and paramedical training centers, addressing the acute shortage of professional education infrastructure that forces talented students to seek opportunities elsewhere. His deliberately cultivated image as a relatable, youth-friendly leader, often photographed in casual jeans and t-shirts rather than traditional political attire, represents a conscious strategy to dissolve the psychological distance between political leadership and ordinary young voters, suggesting accessibility and contemporary sensibilities.
Introducing an intriguing third dimension to this electoral contest, political strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor has positioned his Jan Suraaj campaign as a disruptive alternative to what he characterizes as Bihar’s failed political establishment. Targeting Gen-Z’s profound frustrations with endemic corruption, bureaucratic delays in recruitment processes, and the absence of transparent governance mechanisms, Kishor’s movement appeals to idealistic young voters disillusioned with both major political formations. However, he confronts formidable structural obstacles, as his relatively nascent movement lacks the extensive grassroots organizational infrastructure and caste-based social networks that established parties have cultivated over decades. Nevertheless, his message emphasizing systemic change and institutional accountability has found receptive audiences among students and first-time voters drawn to his outsider status and promises to fundamentally restructure how Bihar is governed.
The election’s broader context includes concerning developments that could influence how young voters perceive the integrity of the democratic process itself. The Election Commission has demanded a comprehensive report from Bihar’s Director General of Police following the killing of a Jan Suraaj worker in Mokama, an incident that has raised troubling questions about law and order during the campaign period. Such violence casts shadows over the electoral environment and may influence youth turnout and voting patterns in unpredictable ways.
Simultaneously, the dramatic rise of digital campaigning has injected unprecedented energy and reach into political communication. All major parties and alliances have heavily invested in social media platforms including Instagram, YouTube, and X, formerly known as Twitter, recognizing that these digital channels provide direct access to Gen-Z voters while bypassing the traditional intermediaries of mass rallies and local power brokers. This shift toward digital-first campaigning reflects an acknowledgment that young voters consume political information differently and respond to different forms of persuasion than previous generations.
The fundamental issues that will ultimately determine how Generation Z votes remain remarkably consistent: employment opportunities that provide dignity and economic security, access to quality education that enables upward mobility, and solutions to the forced migration that has drained Bihar of its youngest and most talented citizens for decades. While the NDA emphasizes continuity, administrative experience, and national leadership connections, the Mahagathbandhan stresses the urgency of change and expanded opportunity. Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj offers yet another narrative centered on clean governance and systemic reform.
Political analysts observing this unprecedented youth surge recognize that whichever alliance successfully convinces young voters of its genuine credibility on employment generation and transparent governance will likely secure the decisive advantage needed for victory. In 2025, Bihar’s election transcends conventional questions of power distribution to become a referendum on competing visions for the state’s future. Generation Z, armed with technology-enabled awareness and unwavering demands for tangible progress, may well determine not merely the next government’s composition but the fundamental direction of Bihar’s political evolution for decades to come. Whoever captures the imagination, trust, and votes of Bihar’s Gen-Z doesn’t just win an election—they win the keys to shaping the state’s destiny.
(the writer can be reached at dipakkurmiglpltd@gmail.com)
