Dressed in a Madhubani art sari, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman showered bounties on Bihar in her budget, underlining not just a short-of-majority BJP’s keenness to please ally JDU but also its focus on the yearend elections in the state.

The BJP, a partner in Nitish Kumar’s NDA government in Bihar, has high political stakes in the upcoming state election as it has been eyeing the chief minister’s chair. With Nitish not in the best of health, the BJP is expected to lay claim to the top post if the NDA returns to power in Patna.

As for the substantial income-tax relief for the middle class, it’s being seen in the context of the February 5 Delhi Assembly elections.

Sitharaman announced a new Makhana Board to help Bihar’s foxnut farmers, along with a National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) unit in the state.

She announced a plan to expand IIT Patna, the establishment of greenfield airports, and financial support for an irrigation canal project in Bihar.

The Opposition oozed scorn. “In all my years in Parliament, this is the first time I have had the opportunity to listen to Bihar State Budget in Parliament,” DMK member Kanimozhi said in a post on X.

This is the second Union budget in a row to reward Bihar. Last year’s post-election budget had rained big-ticket projects on the state with an outlay of ₹60,000 crore. This was seen as an attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to keep the JDU happy, given the BJP’s newfound dependence on allies.

The latest coddling of Nitish comes on the back of speculation that he might switch sides ahead of the Assembly polls. Nitish has denied the possibility but the BJP appears unwilling to take chances.

However, the budget seemed to ignore the other crucial BJP ally, Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party, which rules Andhra Pradesh. With Andhra having been the flavour of last year’s post-election budget, the short shrift given to the state this year attracted Opposition attention.

Congress member Jairam Ramesh posted on X that the bonanza for Bihar was “natural since an election is due there later in the year”.

“But why has the other pillar of the NDA, namely Andhra Pradesh, been so cruelly ignored?” he asked.

Sitharaman started her shower of gifts for Bihar by announcing the Makhana Board.

“There is a special opportunity for the people of Bihar. A Makhana Board will be established in the state to improve production, processing, value addition, and marketing of makhana,” she told the
Lok Sabha.

She said that farmers who produce and process makhana would be organised into FPOs (farmer producer organisations) for handholding
and training.

While some Opposition leaders castigated the heavy Bihar tilt in the budget, the JDU was over the moon. “The biggest announcement is that (Bihar) will have a greenfield airport,” JDU working president and MP Sanjay Jha
told reporters.

“A Makhana Board will be formed and this will help the farmers in a big way. Eighty-five to ninety per cent of makhana is produced in the Mithila and Kosi regions of Bihar.”

Mod and his party members thumped their desks as Sitharaman announced the NIFTEM while the Opposition seemed to let out an audible sigh, keenly aware of the electoral implications.

Sitharaman said the institute would boost food processing across the entire eastern region, raise farmers’ incomes and create job opportunities.

She did not specify the sites where the greenfield airports would come up in Bihar, only saying: “Greenfield airports will be facilitated in Bihar to meet the future needs of the state. These will be in addition to the expansion of the capacity of Patna airport and a brownfield airport at Bihta.”

She promised “financial support” for the Western Koshi Canal ERM Project, saying it would benefit the large number of farmers who cultivate over 50,000 hectares in the Mithilanchal region.