As 25-year-old Maithili Thakur strides into the Bihar Legislative Assembly as the state’s youngest MLA, she rises as a potent symbol of change. A young woman, a poster girl, is already the talk of the town. Her singing career brought her fame; politics will bring power, perhaps to change things, many things.

The recently-concluded Bihar elections had a strong gender skew. There was a deluge of welfare sops for women, and women voters turned out in unprecedented numbers, helping the ruling NDA secure a decisive victory. A more complex question is whether that translates into real power for women, or whether this is a one-off moment of electoral engine rather than empowerment.

Women’s turnout in the 2025 Bihar Assembly polls rose sharply: women voted at ~71.6% compared with ~62.98% for men

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