Narendra Modi's election campaign at Muzaffarpur

Mr Modi took several digs at the Bihar Chief Minister without naming him. "Mr Paswan quit the NDA and expressed his anger. But in all these years, he always met us with affection. I know some leaders who meet you in private but break into a sweat at shaking hands in public," he sneered.

Mr Paswan praised Narendra Modi whom he has criticized for over a decade. "Incidents happen, the riots happened in Gujarat 12 years ago, there have been nothing since then. But here in Bihar they happen every year," he said.

Mr Modi last addressed a rally in Bihar in October. Multiple blasts ripped through capital city Patna minutes before he arrived at the venue of his hunkar rally, leaving seven people dead and over 80 injured.

In a speech that he began in the local Bhojpuri dialect, Mr Modi tore into the Nitish Kumar government for poor development. "In Bihar, it is news when there is electricity, not when there's a power cut," he said.

Mr Paswan quit a long-running alliance with Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal after they failed to agree on seat sharing. The RJD is close to tying up seat-sharing with the Congress for the state's 40 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP has agreed to let Mr Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party contest seven seats. Mr Paswan brings to the table about five per cent Dalit votes in Bihar.

BJP leaders CP Thakur, Giriraj Singh and Ashwani Chaubey, all known to be close to Mr Modi, are not attending the rally, reportedly as they are not happy with the tie-up. The leaders, however, cited "personal reasons."

Today's show, also called the hunkar rally, was held next to a ground in the Bakhri-Parimasa area on the Darbhanga-Muzaffarpur national highway. There was heavy security.