Prime Minister Narendra Modi would find it difficult to spot the posters with his face among the life-sized hoardings of chief minister Nitish Kumar when his cavalcade zips through the arterial thoroughfares in Patna on Saturday.

A day before Modi's visit, Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) initiated an exhaustive drive to remove illegal hoardings and posters from the streets. PMC sources said most illegal posters and hoardings were that of the BJP and had the face of Modi, whereas those with Nitish's face were not even touched, as they have been put up on "licensed hoarding space".

The drive on the first day focused on the route to be followed by Modi, wherein the BJP had lately put up a large number of posters. Senior officials in the civic body attributed it to "security issues" during the PM's visit for removing the rampantly placed posters.

"The PMC carries out such drives for removal of illegal hoardings and posters on a regular basis but we have been instructed to remove the illegal posters, which would fall on the PM's route, immediately because of security issues. Posters put up on hoarding spaces registered with the civic body are legal, rest are illegal and are being removed. The drive would continue over the next few days," said a senior official in the PMC associated with the drive.

However, not only BJP's posters were removed, but also that of the RJD.

The JDU had taken an initial lead in the poster war and put up hundreds of life-sized posters of Nitish across the city according to the promotional tactic of Prashant Kishor - the key strategist behind the well-planned campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP, on the other hand, was slightly behind in the race for hoardings. As a result, they had to face shortage of advertisement space. Consequently, many posters and banners of the BJP had been put up on bamboo-made structures and other unregistered hoarding spaces.

However, the party has condemned the civic body's action of removing the banners and the posters.

Condemning the act, BJP Bankipore MLA Nitin Navin said: "Nitish Kumar wants to remain in the limelight, so he doesn't like the pictures of others." The BJP MLA termed the action of removing the banners and the posters as "lowest level of politics in which a person like Nitish Kumar indulges in".