Daily Briefing: Which way will the vote swing?

🗳️ Decision 2025

We are just days away from the Bihar Assembly elections, a high-stakes contest for both the NDA, looking to retain the crown, which it got after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s mid-term volte-face, and the Opposition Mahagathbandhan that wants to wrest back control. Our reporters have spread across the state to take the pulse of voters.

👉 In a state of poor urbanisation, Patna stands out as an island of visible development. But for many, the ‘vikas’ feels incomplete — the young still have to leave their homes and seek jobs elsewhere. Many seek ‘badlav’ (change), but with Nitish as its agent, reposing their faith in the incumbent CM rather than his challengers. Read Vandita Mishra’s report from the ground.

👉 Will the newly formed Jan Suraaj party prove to be a disruptive force? Its chief, Prashant Kishor, has been campaigning across the state, asking voters to choose a “good candidate” and not let their vote go to ‘waste’. But in Champaran, where Kishor began his 3,500-km statewide padyatra in 2022, people may be impressed by his words, but they are not yet ready to hand over their votes. Deeptiman Tiwary reports.

👉 Meanwhile, the RJD is looking to reverse its fortunes in a long-lost Lalu Yadav bastion, Chapra. It has fielded Shatrugan Yadav, popularly known as Khesari Lal Yadav, a Bhojpuri film star and singer, to counter the BJP’s new face, Chhoti Kumari. With the RJD’s influence waning in the constituency, can it still tap into the anti-incumbency sentiments? Himanshu Harsh reports.

⚡ Only in Express

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is slated to begin its first-ever, pan-India National Household Income Survey (NHIS) in February 2026. In the past, efforts to measure incomes have been marred by unreliable data. As many as 95 per cent of respondents in a pre-testing exercise felt “uncomfortable disclosing income from different sources” and most “refused to answer questions on income tax paid”. MoSPI Secretary Saurabh Garg joined The Indian Express for an interview to talk about the NHIS challenges.

He also elaborated on the new inflation series, based on an updated Consumer Price Index, which is set to be released in February as well. Read.

📰 From the Front Page

Act East: The ASEAN grouping of countries has so far not picked sides between the US and China despite Trump’s tariffs. China remains its largest trading partner, while there have been concerns over Beijing’s assertions in regional waters. In this backdrop, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, virtually addressing the ASEAN-Indian leaders’ summit in Kuala Lumpur, called the partnership a “robust foundation for global stability” in this “era of uncertainties”. He also declared 2026 as the ‘ASEAN-India Year of Maritime Cooperation’.

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit, the US and China agreed on a framework for a trade deal, which would include a pause on steeper American tariffs and easing of China’s control on rare earth minerals. US President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet on Thursday.

Net widens: In a recent breakthrough, the Special Investigation Team (SIT), investigating the voters’ list irregularities in Karnataka’s Aland seat, zeroed in on a data centre used to illegally make online applications for the deletion of names. The police suspect that it may have been used to “manipulate” voters’ lists in at least two other seats in the Kalaburagi district.

📌 Must Read

Be advised: Deepfakes generated through artificial intelligence have pervaded the internet. Now, the Election Commission has flagged that these could “contaminate” the “level-playing field in the electoral arena”. It has asked political parties to label videos, images and audio clips created or altered through AI. The advisory reads similarly to draft rules released by the IT Ministry to curb this menace. Read all about it.

Breakthrough! Google DeepMind’s AI model C2S-Scale has generated a “novel hypothesis” about how cancer cells behave, which was later confirmed through lab experiments. This not only marks a milestone for AI in science but also opens a promising new direction for developing cancer treatments. Essentially, the hypothesis has revealed a drug that could make cancer cells more “visible” to the immune system. We called in Shekoofeh Azizi, Research Lead at DeepMind, to explain the findings.

Dunki: On Sunday, 50 men from Haryana returned home after they were deported from the US, amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigrants. They had all taken the “donkey” or “dunki” route, a chain of human trafficking trails through South and Central America, to cross into the US. Many had spent lakhs, selling their land, to chase their American dream, only to end up in jail. This is their story.

⏳ And Finally…

Sai Paranjpye, the brains behind classics like Sparsh and Chashme Buddoor, is back in the spotlight with her unique solo presentation about her work, called Darwal (Fragrance). Paranjpye, among India’s first women filmmakers, has received the Padma Bhushan and several National Awards. She joined us for the latest Idea Exchange session to talk about her stories, working with Farooq Shaikh and Naseeruddin Shah, and censorship in cinema.

🎧 Before you go, do tune in to today’s ‘3 Things’ podcast episode. The lineup: Fake ORS drinks, the latest on the Kurnool bus crash, and how the election season has halted government examination prep in Patna.

That’s all for today, folks! Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta

Top news on October 27, 2025