Tejashwi Yadav accuses New Delhi of neglecting Bihar flood crisis

Bihar's leader of the opposition, Tejashwi Yadav, has accused the central government of showing a "stepmotherly" attitude to the state's flood crisis, claiming New Delhi is ignoring a disaster that has affected more than 4.8 million people.

Speaking at a press conference in Patna, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) working president said he wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 7 September to demand that the deluge be classified as a "national disaster". He is calling for an immediate federal relief package of ₹5,000 crore, warning that Bihar's own treasury has been left empty.

Yadav drew a sharp contrast between the federal response to Bihar and how the Prime Minister handles emergencies in his home state. "Whenever there are floods in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gives quick assurances of relief, talks to state leadership and directs deployment of relief forces, including the Indian Air Force," Yadav told reporters. By contrast, he claimed, the Prime Minister only visits Bihar during election campaigns "to eat litti chokha".

The criticism strikes at the heart of Bihar’s political alignment. The state is run by a coalition allied with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—a setup local politicians call a "double-engine" government. Yadav argued this arrangement has failed to deliver. He questioned why Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary has been unable to get the Prime Minister's attention and noted that despite Bihar sending several ministers to the federal cabinet, none of them have been able to secure emergency funds.

Neither Modi nor Choudhary have responded to his letters, Yadav said.

The political row comes as Bihar grapples with unusually heavy monsoon rains. Official figures show the state received 108.8 mm of rain in the first half of September, which is about 20 per cent above the long-term average. Major rivers, including the Ganga, Kosi, and Punpun, have breached their banks, flooding 575 gram panchayats across 15 districts.

Bhagalpur is among the worst affected districts, where more than 640,000 people have seen their homes and crops inundated. While the disaster management department says river levels have finally begun to fall, the immediate humanitarian challenge remains vast.

According to official figures, the state government has deployed 1,790 boats to help with evacuations and transport. Ten national and 27 state disaster response teams are on the ground, and authorities have set up 1,251 community kitchens and 13 relief camps to feed and house over 12,000 displaced people. But Yadav, who has been touring the flooded regions, said many survivors told him they were still not receiving basic facilities.