Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi are bitter political rivals; it’s no secret. In Bihar polls, it shouldn’t be surprising when a bit of mutual acrimony seeps into their election speeches. But there’s a contrast in style.

Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi are bitter political rivals; it’s no secret. So it shouldn’t be surprising when a bit of mutual acrimony seeps into their election speeches. But there’s a contrast in style.

The approach of both the leaders at the rallies in the Naxal-affected districts of the state — Modi in Banka on 2 October and Nitish at Tekari in Gaya on Tuesday bring out the contrast clearly. Modi is subtle in his attack, more statesmanly, while Nitish finds it difficult to hide his bitterness. Modi links his barbs to an overarching theme with popular connect which is not the case with the Bihar chief minister.

Until the first half of last year, both Modi and Nitish were counterparts as chief ministers of two politically important states, thus equal in stature. This has changed after Modi’s ascent in the BJP and his subsequent election as the Prime Minister.

At Banka, Modi chose not talk about the RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and didn’t comment on the internal affairs of either JD(U) or the Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan). Even while taking a jibe at the Bihar CM, he refrained from taking his name.

Modi communicated with his audience by juxtaposing the promises made by the Nitish government and the outcome. It was followed by what his government, if it was elected to power, would do. Modi focused on the future – what if BJP wins the election and forms government.

In stark contrast, Nitish Kumar didn’t lose any opportunity to criticize or be acrimonious, while talking about Modi. Comparing his alliance with that of the NDA, the CM said, “Mahagathbandan is as solid as a rock due to the unity of its partners, whereas the NDA is a divided house, where some of its leaders speak in different voices. It shows the internal strife within them.”

Here are the takeaways from Nitish Kumar’s speech:

BJP projecting Modi as the leader under whom the party is contesting Bihar polls. Is PM going to be the CM?

Maybe next time, the PM will campaign for Panchayat elections.

During the last election, senior BJP leaders participated in the poll campaign. But, now Murli Manohar Joshi is nowhere to be seen, Shatrughan Sinha has been sidelined and LK Advani has been dumped in the cold storage.

“Contrary to Indian culture, the BJP has been ill-treating its senior leaders, including party patriarch LK Advani. How can the party claim to be the upholder of Indian legacy that humiliated and neglected its senior most members.”

While, the Mahagathbandan distributed seats and tickets in an orderly manner, there was much acrimony and mud-slinging in the case of BJP and its allies.

He sarcastically remarked on BJP’s promise to get back black money from abroad and ‘Jumlas’.

Ayodhya Narayan Singh (65), a retired government employee said, “I have never voted for the BJP nor do I know whether I’ll do it this time, but had Nitish Kumar said something about his plans and how would he improve the condition of Bihar if the Mahagathbandan comes to power, it would have been kabil-e-tareef (appreciable). But, he ended up only criticizing and calling names, just like Lalu Yadav. It seemed that Nitish was more interested in the affairs of the BJP rather than his own alliance. Maybe it’s due to the company he keeps nowadays, otherwise, earlier he wasn’t so caustic in his speech.”

Another stark difference between the two rallies was the response of the crowd. Gaya, which has considerable Yadav voters, did not respond to Nitish's rally the way it was expected. While, the Banka rally attracted nearly crowd of two lakh, Tekari witnessed not more than 25,000.

“Going by the space occupied by the crowd, it can’t be more than 25,000, may be little less,” a police officer on-duty said. Irrespective of the fact whether they vote for the BJP or not, the crowd at Samukhya Chowk in Banka was more enthusiastic. At Tekari, it was more a routine kind of gathering, though the youth raised slogans in favour of Nitish.

“Tekari is not a district headquarters like Banka, so one can’t expect people to come all the way from Gaya, which is more than 30 kilometres away, to listen to the CM. Had the gathering been the parameter of a party’s winnability factor, BJP would have won in Delhi. It didn’t, despite the fact that the PM lives in Delhi and was at the forefront during Delhi poll,” remarked Pravesh Ranjan (32), a practicing lawyer.

While reiterating the promises made in the vision document ranging from generating employment for the youth to improving agriculture, Nitish Kumar reminded his voters that unlike his opponents, he believed in fulfilling his promises. “I don’t promise anything that I can’t deliver,” added the Bihar CM.