With a simplistic clubbing of the past 25 years to feed the sentiment of anti-incumbency, Modi has made it a bit difficult for his party's state leaders.

The size and response of the crowd for Narendra Modi's rally in Gaya has surely gladdened hearts in the BJP and alliance partners. From the NDA’s perspective, it's an indicator that the Prime Minister continues to attract people in Bihar, just like he did before the parliamentary elections. Leaders and workers returned buoyant from the apparent success of this pre-election rally.

His rivals, particularly Nitish Kumar, aren't oblivious to the popularity he enjoys. Unlike the parliamentary elections, when the Bihar chief minister mostly remained in denial about a wave of support for Modi, he's not taking any chances this time round. He's aware that his rather desperate alliance with Lalu Prasad Yadav may not be working well on the ground, so his best chance lies in convincing people that Modi and the BJP aren't offering any solution to the problems of the state. Nitish is hoping to argue that the Prime Minister is only insulting wisdom of the people and make the elections an emotive one about Bihari pride.

This is precisely why Nitish takes the time off to attentively listen to Modi's speeches and retaliate within hours of Modi finishing a rally. Nitish painting Modi’s 'DNA' comment as an abuse and insult to Bihar was a cleverly designed ploy to arouse the passions of the Bihari.

While this has not have yielded any dividends for Nitish just yet, the war of words between Modi and Nitish is an indicator that the Prime Minister, a powerful political campaigner, may perhaps need to be slightly more conscious of his official position while formulating a chunawi jumla for the polls. This means he may need to restrain himself from calling JD(U) as Janata Ka Daman aur Utpidan and RJD as Rojana Jungle Raj Ka Dar . Modi was factually right about Lalu’s jail term and the number of seats for engineering courses in Bihar in comparison to other states, but this opens the window for many inconvenient questions for the BJP. Modi, the master orator that he is, could have formatted it better to make a more lasting impact.

For various reasons the Bihar assembly elections are seeing extraordinary public interest and the stakes for the BJP-NDA, as also for its rivals JD(U)-RJD and Congress, are much higher than just about who ends up governing the state from the Patna secretariat. Both sides are acutely aware of that. It's the reason why Modi had a second public rally in Bihar within a fortnight and will attend two more, one in Saharsa and another in Bhagalpur in another 15 days. The response of the crowd who had gathered at Modi’s rally and the subsequent talking points raised from his speech could have a huge bearing on the poll prospects of the party.

Caste equations apart, Nitish Kumar knows that he is in for a hard time as he defends his alliance with Lalu Yadav and Congress. Lalu brings with him the association with 'Jungle Raj' and the Congress comes with the reputation of having stalled development projects for Bihar. He also has practically nothing to boast about the period after the JD(U) parted ways with the BJP and chose to go on its own. His campaign strategy is based on the projection of his persona, which could power over all kinds of inherent contradictions, and punching a hole or two in BJP’s campaign strategy.

In Gaya, Modi hit Nitish where it could hurt him most – the lack of trustworthiness as an alliance partner -- a subject that is already a talking point among some sections in Bihar. The Prime Minister referred multiple times to Nitish's ahankar aur dhokhaghadi (arrogance and deceit) and also sent an implicit message to socially dominant Yadavas, Lalu’s principal support base.

The manner in which the BJP had structured Modi’s rally, in the presence of all coalition partners including Ram Vilas Paswan, Jitan Ram Manjhi and Upendra Kushwaha and the manner in which the leaders spoke before Modi shows that caste and social engineering is foremost on the minds of the alliance.

The crowd relished his narration of contradictions in secularist Mahagathbandhan or Grand alliance of snake and venom. Modi spoke of how those who claimed to have drunk poison (Lalu) would spit it after elections to harm people of the state.

"I fail to understand who is Bhujang Prasad and who is Chandan Prasad," Modi said to cheers in an apparent reference to Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar.



But with a simplistic clubbing of the past 25 years (15 years of Lalu-Rabri government and 10 years of Nitish Kumar) to feed the sentiment of anti-incumbency, Modi has made it a bit difficult for his party's state leaders. The BJP was an equal partner in Nitish’s government from 2005 to 2013.

It is a widely accepted fact in the state and outside that this period signified both change and development. The fact that the JD(U)-BJP combine won an unprecedented three-fourth majority is a pointer to the fact that people had rewarded that coalition and wanted it to continue. In the 2009 parliamentary elections, Bihar was an exception to other states and voting massively in support for the BJP-JD(U) alliance.

Senior Bihar BJP leaders like Sushil Modi and Nand Kishore Yadav have constantly been reminding the JD(U) that whatever work Nitish has showcased was done in the seven-and-half years of the coalition era. They have claimed the development was due to the better administrative acumen of BJP ministers. With Modi's statement, Nitish Kumar happily grabbed this point to counter the state BJP leaders.