Bihar's treasury is empty, its debt has quadrupled, and its students are losing credit — so says RJD leader and Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, who on Friday, 21 August 2026 launched one of his sharpest fiscal broadsides yet against the ruling NDA government in Bihar.

The numbers Tejashwi is putting on the table

In a lengthy post on X, Yadav cited what he called a 5.8 percent fiscal deficit relative to Bihar's Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) for the financial year 2025-26 — which he claimed was the highest among India's major states that year. He alleged that total public debt has grown by more than four times, and that the state has taken record borrowings over the past two years while the treasury remains drained. 'Saaraa khazaana khaali hai' ('the entire treasury is empty'), he wrote, capturing the charge in a single line.

Yadav specifically named government employees, pensioners, social security beneficiaries, and contractors as groups facing delayed or withheld payments. He also flagged that the Bihar Student Credit Card scheme — a flagship education-loan programme — has seen its disbursement amounts cut, and that scholarships are being wound down.

The political target: Bihar's Chief Minister

Yadav did not stop at numbers. He trained his fire on the state's Chief Minister, describing him as an 'anaadi' ('novice') 'Gujarat se manoneeth' ('nominated from Gujarat') who, in his telling, lacks any grasp of expenditure management, debt management, or fiscal deficit control. The characterisation is a pointed political jab — framing the CM as an outsider parachuted into the role rather than a leader rooted in Bihar's ground realities.

He accused the NDA coalition of running what he called a 'double engine sarkar' that has become a vehicle for 'bhrashtachar aur sangathit loot' — corruption and organised plunder — asking bluntly: 'Where is all of Bihar's money going? Every citizen of Bihar knows the answer.'

Bihar's fiscal record and why the charge lands

Bihar has historically carried one of the lowest own-tax-revenue-to-GSDP ratios among Indian states, making it structurally dependent on central transfers and market borrowings. The state adopted a Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management framework in the 2010s to cap deficits, but post-pandemic spending pressures — felt across nearly every Indian state — have strained those guardrails. Opposition parties have consistently used CAG reports and budget documents to spotlight the gap between borrowing levels and visible development outcomes.

Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has made fiscal accountability a central campaign plank ahead of any electoral cycle, arguing that the NDA's 'double engine' narrative — a coalition of state and central governments from the same alliance — has delivered debt rather than development.

The specific figures Yadav cites — the 5.8 percent GSDP deficit and the four-fold debt increase — have not been independently verified, and the NDA government has not yet responded publicly to this post. Bihar's next budget session and any forthcoming CAG audit report on state finances will be the real stress-test for these claims.

For now, Tejashwi Yadav has framed Bihar's finances not as a technocratic problem but as a moral one — and he is asking voters to decide who bears the cost.