This column is being written after many hours spent glued in front of my TV screen, watching the results from Bihar. So mesmerised was I by what was happening that I barely had time to sip my tea or take a break for lunch. Nobody, not the exit polls, not the TV political pundits and not us newspaper political pundits expected a landslide victory for the combination led by Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar. It is not easy to decipher why Bihar’s voters have given such a decisive mandate to a man who has been Chief Minister of the state for more than 20 years.

During the campaign there were mixed reports. Some said that Nitish Kumar was in poor health physically. And mentally as well. So, he sometimes said things that made no sense. Others said that Tejashwi Yadav had shaken off his jungle raj legacy and was seen as a credible new leader. Still others said that Rahul Gandhi had made such waves with his ‘vote chori’ yatra that there were chances of the Congress party reviving in a state that it has not won for more years than anyone can remember. I have covered every Bihar election in the past decade or more, but could not go this time for personal reasons, so I was........

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