Nitish Kumar has increased the social security pension amount in Bihar by more than two and a half times. As soon as this announcement is made by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the competition to take credit in Bihar politics has also started. Leaders like Tejashwi Yadav and Prashant Kishore claim that Nitish Kumar has taken this decision under his pressure.
Nitish Kumar has announced the increase in social security pension amount on his social media handle x, and said that about two crore people of Bihar will benefit from doing so. The special thing is that this scheme will be implemented from next month.
The election advantage of the schemes transferred directly into the account has already been seen. The first such example was seen in the 2023 assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh. It is different that Shivraj Singh Chauhan, who then implemented it, did not get any benefit, except that the BJP had returned to power.
If seen, the case of Nitish Kumar also seems to be moving like Shivraj Singh Chauhan. After Bihar elections, Nitish Kumar is also felt clouded with apprehension when Nitish Kumar is made the Chief Minister. Sometimes there is talk of implementation of Maharashtra model in Bihar, sometimes something else. Top, Nitish Kumar is always in alert mode, and it will be very difficult to remove him from the way easily. Anyway, the BJP must have always felt that Nitish Kumar is a crutches of the NDA government at the Center.
Nitish Kumar’s decision to increase the pension amount in the corridors of Bihar’s power is being described as a master stroke – is it really so?
Has Nitish Kumar neutralized all the targets going against him with a single arrow?
Pension will increase from next month itself
The Bihar government has increased the pension amount received every month to the elderly, widows and disabled beneficiaries to ₹ 1100. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar himself has made this election announcement on the social site X. The election announcement is because this announcement has been made about three months before the assembly elections, and the increased amount from the next month will start getting to all eligible beneficiaries.
Nitish Kumar has written, ‘I am happy to say that under the Social Security Pension Scheme, all the elderly, disabled people and widow women will now get ₹ 1100 pension instead of ₹ 400 every month. All the beneficiaries will get pension at an increased rate from the month of July.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar says, this will help a lot to 1 crore 9 lakh 69 thousand 255 beneficiaries … Old people are precious part of the society, and our highest priority is to ensure their respectable living … The state government will be constantly trying in this direction.
Bihar Deputy CM Vijay Sinha has said that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has not only fulfilled the demand of the people in this regard, but has taken this decision beyond that. Vijay Sinha says, “Chief Minister’s announcement was met by the demands of the people under the women’s dialogue … This is a historic announcement by the Bihar government … People were asking only 1000 rupees, but they are being given 1100 rupees.”
According to Nitish Kumar, the government will also try to ensure that this amount reaches the beneficiaries account on the 10th of every month. According to the report, the new amount of pension with increased amount will be sent to the accounts from July 10, 2025.
There is a competition to take credit
The credit for increasing social security pension in Bihar is also being tried to take it like caste census. You will remember, even when the caste census was announced by the BJP government at the Center, efforts were made to take similar credit. However, the difference between the two claims is that Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav were already running a campaign regarding caste census, but no one has taken any concrete initiative directly on social security pension, it is not so.
There have been indications of bringing Mai Bahin Maan Yojana for women in Bihar. As part of his Bihar tour, Tejashwi Yadav had made such a announcement by calling a press conference in Darbhanga, and the Congress has also launched the Mai Bahin Mann Yojana in front of the media in Patna.
On the announcement of increasing the pension amount of Nitish Kumar, Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav has accused the JDU-BJP coalition government of being copied. We are saying, we are doing all the copy of people, we are copying … We will not speak something further, we will say more. Right now the government will be surrounded.
Tejashwi Yadav said that RJD has already announced to give ₹ 2500 to women under ‘My Bahn Scheme’. In the press conference, Tejashwi Yadav showed some video clips and claimed that he had already made such announcements. It is his attempt to explain that the government has obeyed him, and now an attempt is being made to take credit.
RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari has also claimed that what has been done by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi Yadav announced several months ago that if our government will be formed, then the old pension will be increased from Rs 400 to Rs 1500. This was the vision of Tejashwi ji, this is his thinking.
And in the same way, Prashant Kishore, the leader of the Jan Suraj Party, has also described the impact of his party’s population. Prashant Kishore claims that if his government is formed, this amount will be increased to ₹ 2000 every month after Chhath festival. Prashant Kishore is claiming that the people of Bihar are ready for real change, stating that the pension amount is increased.
Is this Nitish Kumar’s masterstroke?
Now this people of Bihar will have to decide whether the party whose government has started giving increased amount from the next month, has to go with it in the elections or, promising to give more than the amount received. It also has to be understood that why are political parties who are talking about increasing money, now why are they making such claims?
Till now, it has been seen that people have trusted more on the current system rather than election promises. Even before the elections in Madhya Pradesh, the then government had started transferring money, while the Congress was promising the same or better scheme, but people had more trust in BJP. And, in the Delhi Assembly elections, there was a similar effect. In Delhi, the government of Tatkalinee Aam Aadmi Party had also promised, and BJP too. Since even while being in power, the Aam Aadmi Party government could not give money, so people made more trust in the BJP’s election promise – and formed the BJP government in Delhi.
Even now the question is not just whether Nitish Kumar’s decision to increase the pension amount is really masterstroke? The question is also whether doing so will end the resentment of Nitish Kumar? Is this a bite of an anti -incumbency against Nitish Kumar? Will Nitish Kumar no longer affect the campaign of Chirag Paswan? Can all the BJP and RJD exercise prove to be useless to cover Nitish Kumar?