The Opposition, on the other hand, not just addressed local issues with gusto but also embraced the realpolitik essential for electoral comebacks. While the BJP allowed its old-time ally, AJSU, to walk away, Hemant Soren ensured that his JMM kept its alliance with the Congress party and Lalu Yadav’s RJD intact. The Congress, wrecked by infighting and an exodus of its leaders to the BJP, too realized that it could no longer afford to play Big Brother to Soren and agreed to enter the electoral fray as a junior partner, contesting just 31 of the state’s 81 assembly seats while leaving 45 seats for the JMM. The Soren-led mahagathbandhan also ensured that its constituents had a cohesive poll pitch and that its leaders did not contradict each other during rallies. Soren, on his part, took the responsibility of leading from the front as the alliance’s CM face and campaigned extensively throughout the state, focusing particularly on the nearly three dozen assembly segments where tribals – the core votebank of the JMM – could swing the election. Along with state Congress leaders like Rameshwar Oraon and Irfan Ansari, Soren kept the alliance’s attacks focused on failures of the Das government. Even when the BJP went gangbuster with its Hindutva pitch – Amit Shah promised a “sky high Ram Mandir in four months”, Yogi Adityanath wondered “can votes for Irfan Ansari help build a Ram Mandir” and Modi harped about the CAA – the mahagathbandhan refrained from a direct confrontation.