Bihar’s Politics of Stagnation and the Man Trying to Unfreeze It
Every election in Bihar reads like an old script with new actors. The slogans change, faces rotate, but the story rarely moves forward. The latest data from the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) shows that in the second phase of the 2025 Assembly elections, one in three candidates has a criminal case, and one in four faces serious charges — including murder and crimes against women. For a state that has lived under the shadow of muscle and money power since the 1990s, this revelation is not a shock; it is routine. And that routine is the real tragedy of Bihar.














