Patna:
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar appears in danger of losing a point of prestige to rival and Opposition leader Lalu Prasad.
Mr Kumar's party, the Janata Dal (United) is trailing in the by-election for the Lok Sabha seat of Maharajganj in the western part of the state. Lalu's party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is in the lead. The seat had fallen vacant after the death of Umashankar Singh, who belonged to the RJD. So though this has been a constituency loyal to Lalu, this is the first time in seven years that the RJD will have defeated Mr Kumar's party in a by-election.
Lalu had positioned the contest as "the semi-final" before next year's national election.
P K Shahi, Bihar's Education Minister and the candidate from Mr Kumar's party, the Janata Dal (United), has blamed ally BJP for his likely defeat, an accusation that the BJP will take as a back-handed compliment that signals its importance in a partnership that has been publicly creaking over the last few months.
The collaboration between Mr Kumar and the BJP has given the alliance two successive terms in power; but both sides have suggested that in the national election, they may contest the state's 40 Lok Sabha seats on their own to indicate that they will not falter from ending the relationship if it's in their best interest.
The cause for the friction is the BJP's increasing promotion of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as its tallest leader. Mr Kumar has made it clear that he will end his ties with the BJP if it picks Mr Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. His party, the Janata Dal (United) has said that the Gujarat riots of 2002, in which hundreds of Muslims were killed on Mr Modi's watch, demonstrate that Mr Modi "lacks secular credentials."
Muslims make up 15% of Bihar's population, and their support is essential for Mr Kumar.