Summary of this article
- Six NDA MLAs are accused of murder, while 14 BJP and JD(U) MLAs face attempted murder charges, directly contradicting the alliance’s “good governance” narrative.
- Six NDA legislators are booked in cases related to crimes against women, exposing a disturbing gap between promises of safety and political reality.
- More than half of Bihar’s Assembly — 130 out of 243 MLAs — face criminal cases, revealing the deep normalisation of lawlessness in the state’s electoral politics.
For months, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance campaigned in Bihar on a simple, effective slogan: the return of sushasan — good governance. On the stump, Prime Minister Narendra Modi repeatedly dredged up the spectre of the Lalu Prasad Yadav era, casting it as an age of fear, lawlessness and moral decay. The phrase “Jungle Raj” echoed from rally to rally. Modi sharpened the image further by invoking the katta, the crude, country-made pistol that became a symbol of Bihar’s violent past.
“Jungle Raj was the darkness that slowly eroded Bihar,” the prime minister told cheering crowds. “Cruelty, bitterness, lawlessness, corruption and bad governance — that is what defined the RJD’s rule.”
The rhetoric worked. The NDA swept back to power, riding on a promise of order, stability and clean government. But a closer examination of the very affidavits filed by the alliance’s victorious candidates tells a far more unsettling story — one that seriously undermines the moral superiority on which the campaign was built.
An analysis of nomination papers by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) reveals that the newBihar Assembly, far from representing a clean break from the past, is riddled with serious criminal allegations — particularly among the NDA’s own ranks.
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