The decision by him to reserve 50 per cent seats for women at the recently concluded statewide panchayat polls beyond castes, and the related move to reserve 17 per cent seats for EBCs, the most underprivileged in the backward, further bore testimony to Mr Kumar`s effort to strive for a balanced politics, based on social and gender equalities.

His support to the election of Sharad Yadav as National JD(U) president, or the election of Rajiv Ranjan Singh (Lalan) as state JD(U) chief perhaps can also be viewed as indicators to his well balanced move.

Besides, Mr Nitish Kumar neither hesitated to suspend the criminal-turned-politician JD(U) MLA Sunil Pandey from the party on charges of indiscipline, nor prevented the police from the arresting another party leader Anadmohan from Patna station in the recent past.

He was equally uncompromising against Sadhu Yadav and Mohammed Shahabuddin as well, as he gave the police a free hand to arrest another ruling JD(U) MLA, who was accused of molesting a Dalit woman recently.

During his visit to Bihar last week, the British High Commissioner Sir Michael Arthur found Mr Nitish Kumar to be a visionary who aspired to lead Bihar towards development.

The British High Commissioner promised to send a trade and business delegation shortly to Bihar to explore the investment opportunities here.

This was closely followed by a letter from Ratan Tata to Mr Nitish Kumar, expressing his willingness to come and invest in Bihar.

All these developments understandably prompted Mr Lalu Prasad to ponder over the mistake of distancing Mr Ramvilas Paswan in October-November polls, which had cost the UPA at least 30 seats to the NDA.

The UPA had fought separately in Bihar under Mr Lalu Prasad and Mr Ramvilas Paswan in last Assembly elections.