15 November,2025 08:27 AM IST | Mumbai | Hemal Ashar
BJP supporters celebrate as the NDA alliance leads during the counting of votes of the Bihar Assembly elections, in Mumbai on Friday. PIC/PTI
Bihar's famous culinary offering is Litti Chokha, but for a while on Friday, one could be mistaken thinking it is laddoos. Sweets rained down by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), especially Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters. The Bihar Foundation is a diaspora cell of the Bihar government under the department of industries. The foundation's Mumbai (Maharashtra) chapter is one of 20 across India. In an interview, its spokesperson, Manoj Singh Rajput, speaks to mid-day about polls, transformation, migration, Biharis in Mumbai, and a win for the ages and history pages. Excerpts from an interview:
Dubbing the victory as landslide and sweeping is all very well, but what does the Bihar mandate really tell us?
The win was expected, but these numbers are mind-boggling. This is a: âgo for women's security,' âgo for law & order,' âgo for development' win.
When you say go for women's security, there was also Rs 10,000 given monthly to every woman...
That was not a factor. It is improved law and order that brought in the votes. Today, women can walk alone in Patna at 11 pm; this was unthinkable. Girls were also earlier afraid of forced marriages, often facilitated by kidnapping. Today, we see a change in that, too. Just like the women of Madhya Pradesh used to refer to former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan as mamaji, women in Bihar see Nitish Kumarji as part of their family. They have family bonds.
You need to specify development. It is often used as a catchphrase, increasing in decibel levels close to elections...
If this is a catchphrase, will the electorate not see through it? Not everybody gets swayed by political platitudes. Development is not just about one project. I will give you one example. In 1998 in Bihar, I would start off by road roughly at 7 am to reach a destination 160 km away, scheduling 12 hours for the journey. Today, I cover that distance in 2.5 hours. That is the leap in progress in roads. Remote areas now have light, and there is electricity in homes. This was a state where gangs would steal the oil from electric transformers. Like drainage lids are at times filched in Mumbai, there was electricity theft in Bihar. A more robust law and order system has brought a stop to this. Having said all this, I do not claim everything is perfect. Just like every place in the world, work needs to be done. Yet, things have improved by leaps and bounds.
The âvote chori' narrative has fallen flat...
Yes. Because there is no vote chori, these were yarns spun before the poll to ensure there is some excuse for a loss.
Comment on migration from Bihar to Maximum City and the large number of Biharis migrating here to Mumbai...
The perception of the Bihari as backward and who does not fit in is changing because of the leader, Nitish Kumarji. We have Biharis in very high posts in Mumbai in different agencies of government, law and order, etc. Yet, it is the face of the leader that people go by. I know Biharis who used to be ashamed to be from the state earlier, even hiding their identity and telling people that they were from Delhi or elsewhere... Today, I see less of this. Instead of shame and a need to hide, there is pride.
