Written by Malavika JayadeepNew Delhi | November 15, 2025 09:37 AM IST 5 min readGood morning, Bihar has delivered Nitish Kumar a resounding return — his tenth term — while handing the NDA a brute majority that has redrawn the state’s political map. With the alliance cruising past the 200-seat mark in the 243-member House, the Mahagathbandhan has been left in ruins, its tally hovering around the mid-30s. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the verdict as a “prachand jeet”, calling it a rejection of “jungle raj” politics and a vote for “good governance, development, public welfare and social justice”, even using the moment to fire a warning shot at Bengal ahead of next year’s polls. For Nitish, who weathered voter fatigue and questions over his shifting alliances, the verdict signals a renewed trust in his governance model.The full story: The “badlav” vote in Bihar may have been loud, but it was ultimately directed at the incumbent with voters demanding more from Nitish Kumar rather than buying the promises of his challengers. Reducing the NDA sweep to an election-eve Rs 10,000 transfer to women is too glib; it ignores both the scepticism of women voters and the long arc of Nitish’s pro-women policies, from cycles for schoolgirls to Jeevika and reservations, writes my colleague, Vandita Mishra. To understand the why of the outcome, it may be necessary, first, to say what it isn’t. Read.Story continues below this adThe Chirag Paswan factor: The Bihar results may be a wave, but within that sweep, one story stands out: Chirag Paswan’s rise. With the LJP (Ram Vilas) leading on most of the 29 seats it contested, Chirag has turned a generous seat allocation into proof of real vote-pulling power. His return to the NDA has added crucial dalit and youth support, helping lift the JD(U) too, repositioning him as a central force in the alliance rather than a disruptor on the margins. ⚡ Only in ExpressThe urbanisation story: Just beyond the hum of machines and the dust of frantic construction, Jewar’s upcoming Noida International Airport is reshaping western Uttar Pradesh but as a landscape where land rates have tripled, old villages have been uprooted and rebuilt, and farmers, labourers and realtors now measure their futures in compensation cheques, expressways and flight paths. As the first phase nears inauguration – with its one runway, one terminal and the promise of cheaper flights and a “digital airport” experience – the big picture outside the fence is telling. ✍️ Express OpinionDelhi has witnessed terror incidents in the past, but for the past 14 years the national capital had respite from terror incidents. A sense of complacency was also perhaps creeping in that has now been shaken, writes Prakash Singh, a retired IPS officer. “Eternal vigilance, as they say, is the price of liberty, and one can now see the security personnel in a state of high alert all over the country, especially in the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The striking features of the latest incident of terror and the lessons it conveys deserve to be properly analysed.” Express ExplainedGermany, the world’s third-largest economy at USD 5 trillion, is crawling through another year of near-zero growth, expanding by just 0.2 per cent after two years of recession. The German Council of Economic Experts have warned that “structural changes and geopolitical shifts” are undermining the country’s traditional export model. Fragmentation within the EU single market, US leadership forcing Europe to rethink security and trade, and Germany’s own troubles (from ageing demographics to declining industrial competitiveness) have all deepened the slowdown, writes Udit Misra in his weekly column GDP. Unless Berlin acts quickly, India, at roughly USD 4 trillion, may soon overtake Germany to become the world’s third-largest economy. How close is that shift and what do expert panels recommend to reverse the trend? Find out. Movie ReviewStory continues below this ad‘De De Pyaar De 2’ returns to its May–December romance with the same breezy confidence as the 2019 original, once again pairing a fifty-plus, grey-at-the-temples Ashish Mehra (Ajay Devgn) with a “spry 26-year-old” Ayesha (Rakul Preet Singh), writes Shubhra Gupta in her review. The sequel widens the circle of disbelief by bringing in Ayesha’s “modern, liberal” parents – R Madhavan and Gautami Kapoor – who go from oh-my-god-how-could-she to acceptance over two-and-a-half hours. “It’s not just the film which has leapt forward in years, it is also Ranjan’s writing of men.” It’s fun, but also unmistakably sit-com-ish and the selling of the older-man–younger-woman romance still feels like hard work. And as Gupta wryly asks: what if, *shudder*, the woman was older? Now that would be real growth.That’s it for today, have a great weekend!Malavika Jayadeep© IE Online Media Services Pvt LtdTags:Top news