“Nayee raftar se chalega Bihar, phir jab aayegi NDA sarkar' (Bihar's growth will speed up once NDA returns to power)”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday as he launched his Bihar Assembly poll campaign with back-to-back rallies in Samastipur and Begusarai districts, asserting that the NDA under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will break all previous electoral records.

The PM also called the INDIA bloc a “mahalathbandhan” (a tie-up in which people beat each other with sticks), a mocking reference to ‘Mahagathbandhan’ or grand alliance, as the opposition coalition is commonly known.