Bihar has taken a significant leap by increasing the sports budget to ₹568 crore for 2025-26, up from ₹480 crore last year. In 2022, the Bihar State Sports Authority (BSSA) budget was ₹30 crore only. Out of this ₹373 crore is allocated for stadiums and sports infrastructure, ₹195 crore is reserved for sports development and activities.
With eye on promoting sports and connecting youths to government initiatives, the state government created a separate Sports department on January 9, 2024. Previously, sports administration was under the purview of the Art, Culture and Youth Department. This sports-dedicated department signifies the state governments commitment in promoting a significant sporting culture within Bihar.
The ruling JD (U) accepts that the sports are one way of reaching youths. “Youths are the backbone of NDA’s vote bank. The sports department, through its activities and policy, is empowering them through jobs, incentives. The state needed this roadmap and that is the reason why the state is organising sporting events of national and international standards, developing infrastructures. This is also helping in attracting the first time voters towards the NDA,” said JD (U) national spokesperson Rajeev Ranjan.
As per the revised voter list published in January this year, there would be 808,857 first time voters (18-19 years) this assembly elections; 15,590,481 (20-29 years) voters and 20,424,920 (30-39 years) voters.
“It is part of NDA strategy to target women, youth voters. And there cannot be a better connect than sports and employment,” said a BJP leader, not willing to be quoted and citing government figures of employment. “The government has already provided 9.35 lakh jobs against the target of 12 lakh. Similarly, against the target of 34 lakh employment generation, the government has already generated 24 lakh employment,” said the BJP leader.
Bihar has come a long way in developing sports infrastructure and earned praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who lauded the state’s efforts in promoting sports while inaugurating the Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) 2025 on Sunday last week (May 4). The PM said while India was striving to host the 2036 Olympics, Bihar, under chief minister Nitish Kumar, was actively implementing the Centre’s sports-related schemes.
The 7th edition of the Khelo India Youth Games is currently on (May 4 and May 15) at five places – Patna, Rajgir (Nalanda), Gaya, Bhagalpur and Begusarai – in the state.
“Prior to 2020, sports were not on priority list of government. But the incentives in the form of scholarships, jobs and growth of sporting infrastructure are definitely luring youths. Whether it will translate into votes, remains to be seen,” said Gyanendra Yadav, associate professor of Sociology, College of Commerce, Patna.
The state government provided 76 athletes jobs in government departments while it provides scholarship of ₹20 lakh, ₹5 lakh and ₹3 lakh to athletes for winning international, national and state level medals.