JD(U) tells Shah the Uniform Civil Code will not run in Bihar

Union home minister Amit Shah told a Mumbai press conference on Sunday that the Uniform Civil Code will be in force in all 21 states run by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance before the 2029 Lok Sabha election. On Monday in Patna, Janata Dal (United) MLA and former minister Shyam Rajak answered him. "UCC will never be implemented in Bihar," he said. "We all supported UCC in Parliament but that time also our leader Nitish Kumar had clearly stated that it would not be implemented in Bihar."

Rajak's second sentence is the one that matters inside the alliance. JD(U) voted for the concept in Delhi and reserved the right to block the statute in Patna. Working president Sanjay Jha then asked for a meeting with Shah. Party sources told India Today that Jha would repeat a demand for consultations with religious communities, state governments and other stakeholders before any draft moves. Leader Neeraj Kumar said the party still treats a letter Nitish Kumar sent to the Law Commission, when he was chief minister, as its guide.

Shah spoke at an event for the BJP's Seva Sankalp Abhiyan, a campaign that marks 12 years of the Modi government and 25 years of the party under his leadership. He grouped the UCC with surgical strikes, air strikes and Operation Sindoor as proof of a hard line. The code would set common rules for marriage, divorce, inheritance and adoption, regardless of religion. Uttarakhand brought its law into force in January 2025. Gujarat, Assam and Madhya Pradesh have passed bills that await presidential assent and notification. Maharashtra, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh have drafting committees. LiveMint put the NDA's present map at about 72 percent of India's population.

Bihar is the obstacle that the 21-state sentence did not price. The state has a BJP chief minister inside a coalition that also includes JD(U), Rashtriya Lok Morcha, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular). Rajak used that arithmetic. "There is no independent government. There is no question of implementing UCC in Bihar at any cost." A BJP functionary, speaking after Rajak, said NDA states would move through discussion and consensus and that Bihar had until 2029 to join.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal called the plan an attack on one community. That line is expected. The more useful split is inside the NDA. JD(U) has spent years trying, with limited success, to hold a share of Muslim votes while sitting with the BJP. A statewide personal-law rewrite is the file on which that attempt usually breaks. Rajak said so in public rather than in a closed room.

Article 44 of the Constitution puts a uniform civil code in the Directive Principles. It does not force a timetable. Shah's 2029 date turns a principle into a campaign calendar. The states that have already legislated show the sequence: a bill, presidential assent, rules, then enforcement. Uttarakhand is the only state that has completed that chain. Three others are stuck at the assent step. Three more are still writing. Bihar has not opened a draft.

If Jha meets Shah, the likely product is a form of words about consultation. It will not erase Rajak's sentence. Alliance partners in other NDA states will read both. A code that runs in 20 states and stops at the Bihar border is still a national story. A code that the home minister promised for 21 and then postpones in the one state where the BJP does not govern alone is a different story. Monday put that second version on the record.

Uttarakhand is the only state where registrars already apply a single set of forms for marriage and succession. Gujarat, Assam and Madhya Pradesh have text but no notified rules. Until those rules exist, the 21-state sentence counts bills, not offices that can issue a certificate. Bihar has not opened even that first draft.