Between Bihar exit polls, a movie outing for Sushil Modi

Security personnel smile when he is asked if he is going to be the CM if BJP wins. He brushes aside the most frequently asked question: “Wait for the result, other questions will follow.”

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Talking about the “quota politics” that played out, he says, “We did not get bothered about the reservation debate till the second phase. But when we learnt that Grand Alliance leaders were distributing handbills on reservation attacking us, we went into overdrive. We took honest feedback from all sections and started the counter attack. We took control of things by the third phase of polling.”

He does not find merit in reports claiming that a high turnout of women voters meant they voted for CM Nitish Kumar’s uniform and bicycle schemes. “Ek yojana ka labh do bar nahi milta (One scheme does not yield electoral dividends twice). After EVMs were introduced and booth capturing stopped, women started coming out to vote in bigger numbers. Second, most women whose husbands and family members live outside the state make it a point to vote. I doubt if they do not consult their husbands or elders before casting their votes.”

“But there is no point taxing the mind now, when it is just a matter of hours,” he says.