WAS THE BIHAR ELECTION WON THROUGH ‘CASH POLITICS? WORLD BANK MONEY WAS USED TO BUY VOTERS: PK

WAS THE BIHAR ELECTION WON THROUGH ‘CASH POLITICS? WORLD BANK MONEY WAS USED TO BUY VOTERS: PK

29-NOV-ENG 2

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

PATNA---------------------------Following the NDA's landslide victory (202 seats), state politics has been embroiled in a new controversy. Prashant Kishore's party, Jan Suraj, has made a serious allegation that the Nitish Kumar government used ₹14,000 crore from the World Bank—received for development projects—to give ₹10,000 to women, completely altering the election landscape. Uday Singh and Pawan Verma claim that approximately ₹40,000 crore was spent on vote-buying from June until the election.

Jan Suraj claims that money under the Chief Minister's Women's Employment Scheme was deposited into the accounts of 12.5 million women just an hour before the code of conduct came into effect. Pawan Verma said he received information that this money was taken from the World Bank's ₹21,000 crore package, while Bihar already has a debt of ₹4.06 lakh crore and is paying ₹63 crore in interest every day.

Uday Singh bluntly stated, "The NDA bought votes with public money, and you've never seen this scale before." The scheme was launched in September 2025, and PM Modi himself released funds to 7.5 million women. Jan Suraj alleges that this was a "political freebie" that completely influenced women voters.

So far, neither the Bihar government, the JDU, the BJP, nor the World Bank have directly responded to these allegations. Chirag Paswan offered a mild retort but remained silent on the fund diversion.

Experts say that diverting development funds is legally possible, but doing so just before elections raises questions about both ethics and the MCC. Moreover, no direct connection to this cash transfer scheme has been found in the World Bank's project list—further complicating the matter.

Jan Suraj contested 238 seats but failed to win a single one. The party claims this is not a defeat, but a victory due to vote buying. The big question now is: has development money become an electoral weapon? And will the Election Commission or the World Bank investigate these allegations? The NDA has won, but the heat of this controversy has not yet subsided.