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On social media, Prime Minister Narendra Modi explained that in Bihar the victory of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was due to the state’s achievements under the stewardship of the Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal (United) (BJP-JD(U)) coalition in terms of development. This interpretation is not really supported by empirical evidence but the Bihari trajectory of maldevelopment still needs to be factored in for – partly – explaining the electoral performance of the NDA. 

Most of the social indicators of Bihar show that it almost systematically lags behind the other states of the Indian Union, even in the Hindi belt. 

As the method of calculating poverty in India has changed several times, for comparisons over time of the standard of living, the monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) is a more accurate instrument. From that point of view, Bihar comes last with Rs 4,768 in the cities and Rs 3,384 in the countryside, compared with Rs 5,040 and Rs 3,191 for Uttar Pradesh and Rs 5,913 and Rs 4,263 for Rajasthan. 

In contrast, the MPCE of Gujarat and Maharashtra were respectively at Rs 6,621 and Rs 6,657 in the urban milieu and Rs 3,798 and Rs 4,010 in the rural part of these states, far from what it was in Tamil Nadu (Rs 7,630 and Rs 5,310), Kerala (Rs 7,078 and Rs 5,924), Karnataka (Rs 7,666 and Rs 4,397), Andhra Pradesh (Rs 6,782 and Rs 4,870). Incidentally, among the Northern states, only Haryana (Rs 7, 911 and Rs 4, 859) could compete with the South. 

That was partially due to the fact that Bihar remains a rural state and that there are many poor people in villages. Here, poverty levels are partly a function of wage levels. In 2022-23, the average daily wage for men working in rural areas as agricultural labourers was only Rs 308 in Bihar. By contrast, these workers were paid Rs 764 per day in Kerala and Rs 470 in Tamil Nadu, Rs 309 in Uttar Pradesh, and a meagre Rs 241 in Gujarat – only Madhya Pradesh does worse, at Rs 229. 

The situation was very similar for non-agriculture rural labourers who earned Rs 313 in Bihar, against Rs 697 in Kerala and Rs 481 in Tamil Nadu, Rs 348 in Madhya Pradesh, Rs 336 in Karnataka, Rs 324 in Uttar Pradesh........

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