How many MLAs

• After Sarfaraz Alam quitting the JDU and joining the RJD to contest the Araria Lok Sabha bypolls, the ruling and Opposition parties are making claims and counter claims. RJD MLA Bhai Birendra has claimed that around 30 Dal MLAs are in contact with Tejashwi Prasad Yadav "secretly". On the other hand, JDU MLA Sanjay Yadav claims that "most" of the RJD MLAs are in secret contact with his party to switch over. MLAs of both parties are amused. "They are making us look more like James Bond on a secret mission than a legislator," a JDU MLA told an RJD legislator. However, most Bihar lawmakers are perennially on a secret mission seeking greener pastures. Last year, BJP minister Nand Kishore Yadav had said in the Assembly that RJD MLA Lalit Yadav had approached him for a BJP ticket during the 2015 Assembly polls. With elections approaching, MLAs across party lines will indeed be on secret missions after gauging the mood of the people, remarked a veteran politician.

No supporters

• Leader of the JDU in Parliament Ram Chandra Prasad Singh (in picture) appears to have very little support within his party. When leader of Opposition in the Assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav alleged in a public that apart from GST the people of Bihar had to give "RCP tax," hardly any JDU leader came out in his support. When a journalist asked Nitish Kumar for his comment, the chief minister dismissed the question and told him to ask serious questions. The RJD, however, has never liked RCP. "When the JDU and RJD leaders were negotiating the alliance before the 2015 elections, Laluji refused to even talk in the presence of RCP," recalled a senior RJD leader. RCP, a former UP-cadre IAS officer, had alleged that Lalu as railway minister tried to implicate him in a false case. But it seems even in his own party there is not much love lost for RCP.

The lucky ones

• The state police headquarters seems to have a bunch of officers unaffected by the change of government. "There are quite a few police officers in Patna and outside who have been in their posts for more than four years. The change of governments does not effect them. There are quite a few against whom senior officials have recommended transfer. But they remain there. The JDU keeps on complaining about the pressure on them by Lalu in the Grand Alliance days on transfer and postings. The pressure still appears to be on," remarked a senior police official.

ATS worry

• Police officers are worried over how the state anti-terrorist squad (ATS) is being run. "The ATS has become another shunting yard for unwanted police officials and officers are hardly allowed to settle down before they get their marching orders. We were not surprised when after the recent Gaya bomb blast (Mahabodhi Mahavihara in picture) the ATS team was the last to reach the spot. The Gaya police were so angry that at first they did not allow the ATS to touch anything," said a senior police officer, pointing out that the ATS has to have a highly trained force to be effective. "It was the bomb blast in Gandhi Maidan during Narendra Modi's rally which led to the downfall of Nitish Kumar in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls," the officer said.