ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the political roots of the policy shift in Bihar, which transformed Bihar from 'Jungle Raj,' to a fast-growing State after 2005 and focuses on the shifts in the strategic choice of regional leaders in an underdeveloped State. It addresses to answer this question: Why did the ruling elites in Bihar, especially in Rashtriya Janata Dal resist the reform policies and economic liberalization in the 1990s and early 2000s? If Bihar were a nation-state, it would have the 14th largest population in the world. Bihar had traditionally been an essential agricultural State; nevertheless, the State's service sector is the main contributor to net state domestic product. Like Andhra Pradesh, specific castes organized themselves as dominant political players in the Bihar Congress after independence. The result of a combination of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s charismatic leadership and dysfunctions of State's institutions was more centralization and personalization of political and administrative power.
