The focus is on the indefinite closure of the Rameshwar Jute Mill in Samastipur, Bihar, which has left around 2,000 workers unemployed just days before elections. A local expressed the grim reality by stating, ‘They will starve.’ The shutdown occurred after the management and the workers’ union failed to agree on implementing new wage guidelines issued by the Bihar government, leading to a lockout. This event highlights the broader issue of industrial decline in a state grappling with high unemployment and labour migration, as workers recall a time when the mill supported up to 7,000 employees. With other local factories like sugar and paper mills already defunct, the closure has fueled anger and desperation, prompting threats of an election boycott from the affected families.