Bihar Election and Chhath Puja: Understanding the Strategic Relationship Between Festivals and Voter Turnout

New Delhi:

The Election Commission deliberately scheduled Bihar's polling dates with careful consideration for Diwali and Chhath Puja, two festivals deeply interwoven with the state's electoral patterns and cultural identity.

Elections are typically arranged after these festivals for a practical reason - hundreds of thousands of migrant workers return to Bihar for celebrations, which significantly boosts voter participation rates.

Scheduling elections before these festivals creates a financial burden for countless workers from underprivileged backgrounds who simply cannot afford multiple journeys home within a short timeframe - once for voting and again for celebrating these important festivals.

This pragmatic consideration explains why political parties rarely disagree on holding elections immediately following these festivals. This year, Diwali and Chhath fall between October 18 and 28, with voting scheduled approximately one week afterward.

Political organizations also generally favor fewer voting phases, again minimizing inconvenience for Bihar's migrant population, which constitutes a critical voting demographic.

In Delhi alone, the Bihari population numbers between 45-50 lakh, including laborers, small business owners, students, salaried professionals, and traders concentrated in eastern neighborhoods such as Laxmi Nagar, Trilokpuri, Mayur Vihar, and Shahdara.

Many of these individuals remain registered to vote in Bihar, as Indian electoral law bases voter registration on birthplace or district of origin.

Vote counting will conclude on November 14, when Bihar's citizens will learn which government will lead them for the next five years, barring complications from a hung assembly.

The state legislature consists of 243 Assembly seats, with 40 reserved for marginalized communities, making 122 the threshold for majority rule.

Bihar elections and the Diwali, Chhath connection

The 2005 election featured four phases ending on November 20, which coincided with Nahay Khay, the opening day of the four-day Chhath festival.

That election resulted in victory for the Janata Dal United-BJP alliance, which secured over 140 seats.

The critical metric, however, was voter participation, which reached only 45.85 percent.

Five years later in 2010, with Chhath scheduled for November 9-12, authorities organized a six-phase election running from October 21 through November 20. Notably, an 11-day gap between the final phases accommodated Chhath celebrations.

The JDU-BJP alliance achieved a resounding victory with 206 seats combined.

Importantly, voter turnout increased substantially to 52.73 percent, reflecting greater participation as more people traveled home for Chhath and subsequently voted.

In 2015, Chhath occurred between November 15-18, with voting concluding on November 5. The 10-day buffer between election and festival apparently contributed to another increase in turnout, reaching 56.91 percent.

This election brought victory to Lalu Yadav's RJD-led Mahagathbandhan, strengthened by Nitish Kumar's JDU, which had switched from BJP to the opposition, securing 178 seats collectively.

Moving ahead to 2020, Chhath fell between November 18-21, with voting held October 28 to November 7, providing voters an 11-day interval before the festival.

This resulted in another turnout increase, albeit slight, to 57.29 percent.

The BJP-led NDA emerged victorious despite an impressive showing by Tejashwi Yadav's RJD, which won 75 of its 80 contested seats. The BJP-JDU alliance (with Nitish Kumar having returned to the BJP) narrowly prevailed by just three seats.

For 2025, with Chhath scheduled for October 25-28, the Election Commission has established a clear nine-day interval before voting begins.

Based on recent trends, voter participation may approach 60 percent.

Interestingly, this marks the first time in five electoral cycles that voting follows Chhath, raising questions about whether this reversal might interrupt the pattern of increasing participation.

Bihar, BJP, and the Chhath Connection

The relationship between electoral scheduling and Chhath extends beyond mere timing considerations.

The festival's socio-cultural significance is evident in the Delhi government's preparations, now under BJP control, for the city's substantial Bihari population.

Chief Minister Rekha Gupta's administration is working diligently to ensure a "grand" Chhath celebration in Delhi, presumably so Bihar voters returning home for the election will carry positive impressions.

This underscores how Chhath has frequently become a political flashpoint, with both BJP and Congress criticizing the Aam Aadmi Party, which governed Delhi for 11 years, for allegedly neglecting this important festival.