The Bihar results are not a referendum on the Modi government. They are more a green signal for the absence of hostility to Nitish Kumar’s incumbency.

How they swoop down to feed on what they think is carrion. The BJP is not dead. Far from it. But the pecking has begun. Three people who seem to think they orchestrated the BJP’s defeat like they were all Sun Tzus authoring The Art of War, need to know they are not that relevant.

Isn't it awesome how Rahul Gandhi is making statements of deep intent like he single-handedly won the Bihar election? He labels Narendra Modi as arrogant. That is the Prime Minister of India, hold your horses. He should know about that commodity. To think that he believes he now has a pivotal role in the scheme of things, and the Congress rank and file are now moving him from pawn to saviour-knight and think they have the BJP checkmated. If anything, what Modi has to contemplate with more energy than Auguste Rodin’s Thinker is how his people and their priorities have resurrected a party that was dead in the water with just 44 seats in Parliament. You let them live again and if there is a fault, that is it.

And then we have Arvind Kejriwal taking time to make snide comments that are mired in the sort of slimy rage that certainly does not edify him.

"The Bihar results are in a way a referendum (on the Modi government)”. No, they are not, they are more a green signal for the absence of hostility to Nitish Kumar’s incumbency.

The way the prime minister was working with arrogance and pride, and the manner in which the Modi-Amit Shah duo was functioning dictatorially, this poll result has broken the Centre's arrogance," he said. (You guys were doing much the same, just re-read the OP Chautala parole reports).

The Delhi chief minister expressed the hope that after these results, the Centre's interference in Delhi and other states will end. Perish the thought. If anything, the trinity of AAP-BJP and the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi will get worse and the people of Delhi will pay the price. Does Kejriwal truly believe that a man like Modi will leave the battlefield because of one skirmish? It’s not the war by any means.

And how convenient it is to forget that Kejriwal is not-so-indirectly supporting the alliance of Lalu Yadav and Sonia Gandhi in Bihar, seeing as how he isn’t best buds with them. How is that for convenient politics?

Whatever it is, the BJP ran as an entity. The JD(U) is a patchwork quilt. Let’s see if it unravels because one cannot invite Lalu to the party and expect him to just lie low and do nothing. Some crockery will be smashed. Especially when he has more seats than Nitish or, in analogy, is the bull in the China shop with two sons on the winning side.

Then we have AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi telling us his version of the way it has played out. "It's a personal defeat of Modi as never before a prime minister campaigned so much in an election."

Why is it personal for Modi and impersonal for everyone else?

Seeing as how his party only contested six seats out of the 243 and was leading in one seat, it isn’t as if his presence had a significant impact on the larger picture, the middle picture or the little photo frame. Reminds you so much of Caesar being done over by all those members of the Senate, followed by everyone flying into an orgy of self congratulations, like they were the architects of the triumph.

And all of them are targeting Shah. So be it, but at least the man had the grace to congratulate Nitish on the JD(U) performance.

This little theatre is not over yet. Modi will overcome it. But the thing is that so must the BJP.