On November 6 and 11, Bihar will vote for its 18th Legislative Assembly, a mega, colourful exercise of the democratic franchise to which people of Bihar have justified reasons for feeling let down. Seventy-eight years after Independence, and after decades of being the theatre where the politics of Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia, Mandal, and Kamandal played out its most dramatic turns, Bihar remains a state left behind. It has a population of more than 12 crore, among India’s lowest