The Bihar Assembly elections may be months away, but political parties have already sounded the poll bugle. Although it is expected to be a bipolar fight, neither side seems to be ready for what promises to be a fierce battle, says Satyavrat Mishra in Business Standard. 

Foes turned friend, Lalu Prasad of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal-United, along with the Congress, may claim to represent 45 per cent of votes as per the 2014 Lok Sabha elections data.

However, the baggage both political groups carry is so heavy as to prevent them from moving forward; and the anti-incumbency factor is making several JD-U legislators nervous.

And then, there are differences over the seat-sharing arrangement. These differences have finally forced the RJD chief to rule out a full JD-U-RJD merger ahead of the Bihar elections.

The JD-U leadership, which has tried very hard to forge a new party with the merger of six parties born out of the erstwhile Janata Dal, is now wondering whether the idea is feasible at all. The Bharatiya Janata Party, while still basking in the glory of last year's impressive victory, is trying not to repeat the mistakes it made in last year's by-polls for the state Assembly. In August 2014, the saffron party was routed by the JD-U-RJD-Congress combine in the by-polls and could win only four out of 10 seats.

There was also substantial erosion in the BJP's vote share from 45 per cent to 37 per cent and that too in just three months after the Lok Sabha elections.

The party is a divided house in Bihar and it is not in a position to project anyone as a chief ministerial candidate, which has not gone down well with its traditional voters. The odds still seem to favour the party but leadership differences seem too deep to paper over.

Read the full column here