Patna, Aug. 10: Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad would address a joint rally of the JDU and the RJD at Gandhi Maidan on August 29 after two decades, signalling they would operate in tandem against the NDA's star campaigner Narendra Modi's victimisation ploy.

Chief minister Nitish's facts and figures, and RJD chief Lalu's rhetoric would be the ammo of the new alliance to counter Modi, who has been building the NDA's campaign around the "betrayal and victimisation" he and his peers had suffered at the hands of the duo. "Nitish ji will focus on facts and figures. Laluji will unleash the actual fire and brimstone against Modi at our rally," a senior JDU leader said.

Even Nitish had recently told The Telegraph: "I shall base my speeches on facts and figures, while Lalu ji is best suited to answer him (Modi) in his language."

The newfound friends had last shared the dais at the historic Gandhi Maidan at Garib rally in early 1990s.

JDU spokespersons Sanjay Singh and Ajay Alok today confirmed the date (August 29) of the joint rally to be addressed by Nitish and Lalu. Their prime goal would be to expose the alleged falsehood of Modi and his BJP.

Lalu had yesterday said the JDU and the RJD would hold the joint rally to "expose" Modi, who he claimed was on a spree to spread "falsehood" against Bihar and Biharis. Nitish had described the BJP as "Badka Jhoot Party (Big party of liars)" the same day.

Prime Minister Modi had set the tone for building the NDA's campaign around the BJP leaders' humiliation in Muzaffarpur on July 25. The BJP's second Parivartan Rally at Gaya yesterday became a saga of Modi and other NDA leaders narrating how Nitish and Lalu had humiliated and victimised their peers and rivals to stay in power alternatively for 25 years.

"Instead of enumerating what they (Modi and his party leaders) have done for the state and what they were about to do, the NDA leaders are trying to play on victimisation. Somehow, I sense negativity catching up with the BJP and Modi, who largely focused on development during the 2014 elections," said Sarthak Bagchi, a researcher from Lieden University, Netherlands, conducting research on the elections in Bihar.

Even a senior Delhi-based BJP leader from Bihar expressed his unhappiness over the BJP's strategy. "We should use the words cautiously. We saw how his (Modi's) description of Arvind Kejriwal as " abhaga (luckless)" and him as "bhagyawala (lucky)" had boomeranged against us in the Delhi elections. The battle is tougher in Bihar. The star campaigner (read PM) should remain alert and avoid negativity," he confided to The Telegraph.

In public, the BJP leaders are justifying Modi questioning Nitish's DNA or his description of Bihar as " durbhagyashali (unfortunate)" state. But a section of the party strategists is sceptical about the use of such words.