When Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary calls Chhath Puja the glory of Bihar, he is voicing something millions of Biharis — at home and across the world — feel as a lived reality. On Wednesday, 11 November 2026, Choudhary shared a statement on X attributing words of deep personal reverence for the festival to BJP Bihar president Nitin Nabin, framing the four-day sun-worship observance as the most auspicious thread in the state's cultural fabric.

What Nitin Nabin said — and why Choudhary amplified it

The statement, shared in Hindi, reads: 'Chhath Puja Bihar ka vaibhav hai' — 'Chhath Puja is Bihar's splendour.' It goes on to describe the festival as one of the most auspicious and sacred traditions of Bihar's cultural heritage, one whose essence travels across the country and the world. Nabin adds a personal note — that he draws the strength and energy to work through the entire year from Chhathi Maiya, the presiding deity of the festival, alongside the bond of family.

By amplifying Nabin's words, Choudhary — himself a prominent BJP face in Bihar — reinforces a message that the party has consistently used during this season: that Bihar's cultural identity is inseparable from Chhath, and that the BJP's leadership shares in that identity authentically, not merely ceremonially.

Chhath Puja: four days that stop Bihar in its tracks

Chhath Puja is a four-day festival dedicated to the Sun God and Chhathi Maiya, observed with extraordinary rigour — fasting without water, standing waist-deep in rivers at dawn and dusk, and offering arghya (water offerings) to the rising and setting sun. It is among the rare major Hindu festivals that require no temple and no priest; the river ghat, the bamboo basket of offerings, and the open sky are the only stage it needs. That simplicity is also its universality — Bihari diaspora communities from Mauritius to New York observe it with equal fervour.

In Bihar itself, state governments of all political stripes have invested heavily in ghat infrastructure, lighting, and crowd management during the festival — a recognition that Chhath is as much a civic event as a religious one.

BJP's annual Chhath moment in Bihar's political calendar

BJP leaders in Bihar have made public Chhath messaging a fixture of their annual calendar. The festival functions as a natural touchpoint between political leadership and the electorate in a state where cultural pride runs deep and where identity politics around heritage carries real electoral weight. Posts like this one — warm, personal, rooted in family and faith — are calibrated to speak directly to that sentiment without being strident.

The kicker, though, is not political calculation. It is the image of a festival so powerful that it needs no stage manager — just a river at sunrise, a bamboo soop, and an unbroken line of devotees that stretches from the banks of the Ganga to the far corners of the Bihari diaspora.