India, March 8 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party's decision to move Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to the Rajya Sabha and install its own chief minister marks the end of a governance phase that began in 2005. The shift reflects a calculation that while Kumar stabilised Bihar after years of administrative decline, the state's economic structure has not fundamentally changed and requires a different leadership approach, somebody who is attuned to changing times and new challenges.Bihar's economic indicators illustrate the problem clearly.

The state remains one of the poorest in India. According to recent estimates from the Bihar Economic Survey, the per capita income of the state was about Rs 66,528 in 2023-24 at current prices, rising to around ...