There are several key takeaways from the landslide victory of the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led NDA, which has propelled the Janata Dal United (JDU) leader to an extraordinary tenth term in office.

The first is undoubtedly the political tenacity of this leader, who has consistently defied the conventional norms of anti-incumbency that have felled other state chief ministers despite his palpable physical and mental frailties. Nor have his frequent somersaults, vaulting from one side of the political fence to the other, diminished his uncanny capability to remain the lynchpin of Bihar politics through thick and thin. As a matter of fact, his party has this time almost doubled the number of seats it won five years ago, a remarkable comeback from the JDU’s dismal performance last election, which many felt was the start of Nitish Kumar’s marginalisation by his senior partner, the BJP, eagerly waiting to directly hold the reins of power in the state.

This brings us to the second learning from the Bihar elections, which is the ability of the top BJP leadership to pivot at the last moment to change its electoral strategy and tactics if required to do so. For instance, till just a few months ago the BJP and its vast propaganda machine had spread an insidious campaign that the clearly unwell chief minister was on his last legs, and it was time to look for a suitable successor. With the Election Commission introducing the drastic Special Intensive Revision of voters’ lists in Bihar, ostensibly to root out........

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