Mixed Feelings, Varied Hopes of Bihari Migrants in Andhra Over Home State Polls

While the first phase of voting for the 243-member Bihar Assembly continues on Thursday, the next phase is scheduled to be held on November 11. Migrant workers work long hours in hotels, poultry stalls, construction sites and other demanding jobs, often earning little more than they could earn at home, but their hearts remain connected to the villages they left behind.

Hareram Yadav, who lives in Guntur and is originally from Patna, said Bihar has changed drastically. “In 1990, young people migrated to find work, but now the opportunities have increased,” he said.

He said Nalanda University was developed with funds approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Yadav proudly stated that educational institutions have increased and up to 200 units of free electricity have been provided to villages.

Yadav also said that every household is now getting clean water under the ‘Har Ghar Jal’ scheme as the government has shown a visible transformation and ensured the supply of Bhagirathi river water throughout Bihar. He insisted that the Nitish Kumar government should continue.

“Only a stable government can ensure consistent growth. Frequent changes stall progress and delay welfare plans,” the Guntur-based expat said confidently.

Yadav said Bihar elections are of national importance. Kumar claimed that if he loses, the INDIA bloc may gain strength and try to bring Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu into its fold for a larger and active role in national politics.

He said the opposition may offer Naidu a major national role to join their alliance and if this happens, the Modi government may collapse, adding that this is “not good for both the state and the country”.

Vinod Gupta from Patna, who has settled in Vijayawada, said Bihar’s transportation and security have improved greatly. She recalled that travel was unsafe before, but now women moved freely at night.

Gupta observed significant improvements in roads, railways and airports and noted that law and order had improved as the crime rate fell. Likewise, he said, infrastructure has expanded and Bihar has developed steadily under Kumar’s rule.

Mohammed Nausaad (35), from Rakhpura village in Madhubani district, who has been living in Vijayawada for the last three years, migrated to the southern state after he had to close his market during the Covid-19 outbreak. He is supporting young RJD leader Tejasvi Yadav in the upcoming elections.

“I had a small general store and was raising sheep in Bihar before the Covid-19 outbreak, but the lockdown ruined my business,” Nausaad told PTI. Nausaad is part of around 100 internally displaced people trying to make ends meet in hotels in Vijayawada.

He currently works at a chicken center and earns Rs 700 a day for 15 hours of work. When he returned home, he would receive Rs 400 for the same work, which was not enough for his survival. He said if Yadav wins, maybe a few people will be able to find jobs in his hometown.

For most, life in Andhra Pradesh is a trade-off between distance and dignity; better wages but long, tiring days. Mohammad Irshad (30), who has been working in Vijayawada for six years, said unemployment and corruption had driven him away from Bihar. “We voted for Nitish Kumar but he never cared about the poor. Even graduates are unemployed and doing the same job as us here,” he alleged.

Irshad said he earns between Rs 500 and Rs 600 a day but spends almost half of it on rent and food. He said he would fall behind even if he got Rs 600 a day in Bihar and emphasized that getting a government job required paying a bribe which he could not afford.

A Central Government employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said he is from Bihar’s Lakhisarai district and is currently working in Vijayawada. He claimed that Kumar’s administration had ended “jungle raj” and improved roads and security, but the unemployment problem remained deep-rooted.

“Earlier, murders were common and people were afraid to go out at night. Now law and order is better but the industries are dead. The sugar mills from British times are gone and no new industries have taken their place,” he said. He also stated that corruption continues to plague the system, stating that “everyone from the police to senior officials expect bribes”.

The Central Government employee claimed that in Bihar, half of the loan taken as bribe for any reason should be repaid. Despite the difficulties they face, many immigrants say they still have hope that Bihar will change.

“We all want development, not free. But people still fall for the promises made in every election,” he added. For now, the lives of hard-working immigrants whose votes are left in the northern state’s villages continue from dawn to midnight, far from home.

Over the past fifteen years, the southern state has been witnessing massive internal migration with workers pouring in from states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam and others.

Many of these workers earn their living as housekeepers in hotels, as painters, as laborers, and also as laborers in aquaculture units, among others.