On Sunday, results were declared for a state election in India that was the most politically significant, intensely watched and one of the most bitterly contested since the general election in May 2014. Bihar has a population of 100 million to 110 million. Lying in the Hindi heartland, it is one of the poorest, most illiterate, violent, lawless and caste-riven states in the whole country. In theory, no other state is as ripe for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's core message of corruption-free development, efficient administration and good governance.
In last year's election, the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won Bihar's seats in the central parliament by a massive margin. The BJP entered the five-week-long state election campaign in an upbeat mood, confident of repeating a landslide victory to take the reins of government. Its primary opponent was Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, head of the Janata Dal (United) Party who has ruled the state for almost 10 years, except for a brief interregnum after the 2014 general election when he accepted primary responsibility for his party's failure and handed power to a protege who then turned against him.
Nitish, as he is popularly known and described, entered into a political marriage of convenience with Lalu Prasad Yadav, also widely referred to by his first name. Lalu had ruled Bihar for 15 years before being replaced by Nitish, and until this year the two had been bitter rivals. Indeed, Nitish came into power vowing to end Lalu's "jungle raj" (law of the jungle) and restore some semblance of normalcy to a state in which development had gone backward, law and order had completely collapsed, infrastructure had disintegrated, public services had disappeared and the only growth industry was kidnapping for ransom. The Congress Party also joined the anti-BJP grand alliance.