 "The rush at the Patna railway station. The extended leave, which began with the start of Chhath Puja, will go on until the final day of polling in Bihar | Photo: PTI")
More than 74 million voters are set to cast their vote in Bihar’s Assembly elections on November 6 and 11. Yet the ripples of this democratic exercise stretch far beyond the state’s borders — from the textile mills of Tamil Nadu to the toy factories of Punjab — where machines have fallen silent and production lines slowed to a crawl.
Across India’s industrial heartlands, a familiar absence is being felt. Between 30 and 60 per cent of the Bihari migrant workforce, the backbone of construction sites, manufacturing units, and logistics networks, has vanished homeward for an extended break — a
