Patna:
The morning after he unsubscribed from his alliance with the BJP, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar pointedly held his usual weekly "janta darbar" to address the concerns and complaints of the public.
Given the political whorl he unfurled by ending his 17-year-partnership with his ally, the Chief Minister appeared calm as he met over a hundred people, a smaller crowd than usual.
An agriculture department worker, who did not want to be named, said he had voted for the alliance and not just the Chief Minister and his party, and that Mr Kumar will pay for his "arrogance." Around him, others agreed.
But sources in Mr Kumar's party, the Janata Dal United or JD(U), say the small audience today is not a portent of how voters may react to the political divorce. They say people were unsure of whether Mr Kumar, in the midst of prepping for a trust vote on Wednesday, would show up. They also say that today's "darbar" or gathering was meant to address subjects like roads and highways; subjects like law and order, they say, draw a larger audience.
Traditionally, the ministers in charge of the areas listed on the agenda attend the darbar. Today, many of the issues listed for discussion were those handled by BJP ministers, who were sacked on Sunday by Mr Kumar.
The Chief Minister and JD(U) president Sharad Yadav did not name Mr Modi, but said that by placing him in charge of its election campaign, the BJP has signalled that it will choose him as its prime ministerial candidate. That is unacceptable to the JD(U), which has alleged that as Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr Modi did not do enough to protect hundreds of Muslims from being killed during riots in 2002.