What should make the Mahagathbandhan's ears prick is that Jaiswal's demand for verification of burqa-clad women at polling booths is one of several recommendations made by Jaiswal, who is Bihar's BJP chief, at a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Jaiswal says matching faces of voters, especially that of burqa-clad women with photographs in electoral cards, must be made compulsory with respective EPIC cards so that only genuine voters get to vote.

A similar demand was made for the 7 Uttar Pradesh assembly byelections that the BJP won 5 out of 7 last year, with the Uttar Pradesh Police playing a crucial part in "maintaining law and order". While Jaiswal's demand for burqa-clad men to be unmasked is in keeping with the BJP's ideology, it doesn't with the JDU's. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, it seems, has been pushed into a position where he is under the belief that "Muslim vote-bank" translates to "Pasmanda vote-bank" and the Pasmandas are all with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Reality is Nitish Kumar is the only Chief Minister with a political party at his command who is 100% confident he will be able to take the state. In fact, Bihar is coalition politics through and through all through these years and Nitish ruled the roost purely because coalitions have their own dynamics. Besides, who doesn't know a strong Chief Minister with a party to boot has been beating Prime Minister Narendra Modi again and again.

We're talking of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who also heads the unbeatable West Bengal Trinamool Congress. Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have been worsted time and again to oust Banerjee but in vain. Mamata Banerjee is not Nitish Kumar and the West Bengal situation is different, there are fewer political parties with near parity in vote-banks to make a difference.

The question revolves round to strong chief ministers with strong regional parties to command. Like Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and at one time, Biju Janata Dal's Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Let's also not forget the LF's Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the prime example is Tamil Nadu, where Chief Minister MK Stalin leads the powerful Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

These are all powerful chief ministers who Prime Minister Modi hadn't been able to oust despite all his charisma and "rating". Modi experimented and was the "BJP's face of elections" in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Maharashtra...etc, etc, all of them BJP bastions, but West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, he never will crack, like he couldn't Odisha at one time, For that matter, Modi himself was Gujarat CM for years and years because he more or less ruled the roost in the Gujarat BJP.

Point is, can we say the same about Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at this point in time? Is Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in command of the state; is he in command of the JDU, is he calling the shots in both party and government? Why is there the perception that the BJP is running the NDA's election campaign and there's also the 'Chirag Paswan Show' cutting into the perception. The JDU seems to have given up on the 'Muslim vote-bank' that Nitish Kumar once relied on, has it?

Nitish Kumar, it seems, is no longer the strong Chief Minister leading a strong regional party with an umbrella vote-bank including the all-crucial Muslim vote-bank. Now with Jaiswal's "burqa-clad demand", Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been completely sidelined even as the Bihar assembly elections are getting further and further polarized along Hindu-Muslim lines with the BJP ensuring that the NDA remained squarely in the saffron camp.

Reports say all political parties are meeting CEC Gyanesh Kumar in Patna to offer inputs and suggestions . And Jaiswal's burqa-clad voters remarks have sparked a strong response from the RJD, which is alleging political conspiracy, asking how, when the Special Intensive Revision has just been carried out, why the need for new EPIC cards to all voters with fresh photographs? Does the BJP have its own agenda?

The BJP's take is that everybody has a face and none of them should be covered and that the law is the same for all. Of course, according to the Constitution. So, the Election Commission can ask the "burqa-clad" voter to reveal her face and no harm done to election-protocol. The problem is this hurts JDU and Nitish Kumar, but Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is no longer the ace he was, which also made him Chief Minister again and again. Nitish Kumar is not in the league of Mamata Banerjee, MK Stalin, Pinarayi Vijayan... Only strong regional political parties have strong chief ministers and vice versa. (IPA Service)