On the last day of campaigning chief minister Nitish Kumar raked up the DNA issue once again at his election meeting held at Hayaghat in Darbhanga.

"For 14 months, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not remember to visit Bihar, which gave him 31 out of 40 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. I went to receive him (Modi) at the airport in Patna as he was coming to take part in a government function (in July). But the Prime Minister, later, at Muzaffarpur questioned my DNA," Nitish said, taunting Modi.

Nitish said the Prime Minister had declared that there was something wrong in his DNA.

"If my DNA is wrong, then why did you (the electorate) elect me chief minister not once but twice," he said, stressing that Modi's statements against him would not go unchallenged.

Incidentally, the Prime Minister and chief minister Nitish Kumar were seen chatting amicably at a government function on July 25 in Patna. However, after the government function, Modi addressed the first of his four Parivartan rallies held in Muzaffarpur later on the same day.

Modi, addressing the crowd, had recalled how Nitish had cancelled the dinner meet in Patna in 2010, when the BJP national executive was held.

He had said Nitish had thereafter even insulted former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi - "a son of a poor Dalit".

Modi had remarked that he later realised that there was something wrong with the DNA of Nitish Kumar.

The Prime Minister actually corrected himself by declaring that he meant the political DNA of Nitish.

However, Nitish kicked off a political storm by declaring that Modi had not only insulted him (Nitish) but also every Bihari, as he was the chief minister of the state. The BJP promptly hit back by declaring that "Nitish is not Bihar" and the cross-exchange went on and on.

The JDU even organised a campaign by collecting hairs and nail samples of its supporters and sending it to the PM's Office in New Delhi.

However, political circles pointed out that the DNA campaign could not achieve its desired effect at the grassroots level.

In between his hectic election campaigning, Nitish seldom raised the issue. He stuck to the " bahri (outsider) and Bihari" issue.

"Perhaps, Nitish felt so insulted by Modi's jab that he raised the issue again in the dying moments of campaigning," said a senior JDU leader.

The personal rivalry started the day Nitish cancelled the dinner he was scheduled to host him for BJP leaders (in alliance with JDU then) in 2010.

It continued even after Modi became Prime Minister after dealing a humiliating defeat to Nitish in Bihar and reducing Nitish's party to just two seats in Lok Sabha. It also forced Nitish to join hands with his arch political foe Lalu Prasad.

Campaigning for JDU candidate Amarnath Gami, Nitish said: "Why does Narendra Modi despise me? He has become the Prime Minister while I am only the chief minister of a state. Why has he problems with me?"