Bihar: What is at stake for Modi in the first election after Covid-19?

The state is currently ruled by a coalition that includes Modi's BJP and the election will be the first political test of how voters view his handling of the pandemic

India’s eastern state Bihar goes to polls Wednesday in an exercise spread across two weeks. The election is the first test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party since the Covid-19 pandemic struck. A strict nationwide lockdown has resulted in the country’s worst economic downturn in decades and both unemployment and virus infections have soared. India trails only the U.S. as the nation with the most highest case tally.

1. Why does Bihar matter so much?

The state is one of the country’s poorest and lags on most development indicators, but its massive population makes