As Bihar’s Assembly election results roll in today, the verdict may not only determine which coalition governs the state—but also how a financially strained economy can sustain the soaring promises that filled campaign speeches.

Beneath the electoral noise lies a fiscal warning: Bihar is living on borrowed time, quite literally. Advertisement

The Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) 2022–23 report lays bare Bihar’s economic contradictions. The state, often invoked in political rhetoric as a development model, closed the fiscal year with a deficit of 6.01%—nearly double the 3.5% cap suggested by the 15th Finance Commission. Its total liabilities reached Rs 2.93 lakh crore, or 39.35% of its GSDP, with public debt alone accounting for Rs 2.43 lakh crore.

In plain terms, for every Rs 10

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