File photo: Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar (left) and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Yadav
By mid-day today, Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar will know whether their mega alliance works. Results will be in for by-elections to 18 assembly seats, 10 of them in Bihar.
In Bihar, these by-elections are being seen as a semi-final ahead of next year's state elections.
(Read) By-elections were also held last week for three seats each in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh and two in Punjab and counting will begin at 8 am.
For Lalu and Nitish, a convincing win today will mean resurrection after the emphatic defeat that the BJP and its Bihar allies handed their parties in this year's general elections.
It will also signal an acceptance of their alliance, seen as incompatible on many levels, not least because they have built their politics over 20 years on discrediting the other.
An urgent need to stall the BJP brought the bitter rivals together. Lalu's RJD and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) are contesting four seats each as partners, the Congress as the third wheel is contesting two.
It is a high-stakes battle for the BJP too. And not just because it held six of the 10 seats.
Buoyant after its spectacular performance in the general elections - to which its haul of 31 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar contributed significantly - the BJP needs to consolidate in the state ahead of the assembly elections.
(Also read: Sons Not Allowed: BJP Rule for Law-Makers for Bihar By-Election)In Madhya Pradesh, the ruling BJP is looking at retaining its two seats and wresting the third from the Congress, which is much debilitated after big losses in state and general elections held within the last year.
Who wins the three assembly seats in Karnataka will not affect political equations as the ruling Congress has a comfortable majority. But it is a prestige battle for former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, recently returned and rehabilitated in the BJP. His son BY Raghavendra is the BJP candidate in Shikaripura, the seat his father vacated to move to the Lok Sabha.
In Punjab, stakes are high both for the Congress and the ruling Akalis, who will have a simple majority if they win the two Assembly seats.