Bihar is all set to witness a quintessentially historic Assembly election in 2015.

The New Year, by all accounts, is all set to re-script the profile of the major political parties and the fate of their heavyweights.

The 2013-14 proved to be double-edged sword for the BJP in Bihar's context. The party lost the ruling party status it enjoyed for over seven years after the JDU broke its alliance with it on the issue of Narendra Modi. But the party got saddled with power at the Centre with same Modi as the Prime Minister.

The year 2015 will decide if the BJP-led fresh alliance gets back its ruling status in the state. On the other hand, the JDU and the RJD are already on course to redefine their profile - the two factions of the Janata Parivar are in the process of merging themselves into one entity to stop the BJP's surge in the Assembly elections due in October-November.

In any case, two formations - the Janata Parivar and the BJP-led NDA - are set for a drastic change in their respective profiles at the end of 2015. The whole of 2015 is likely to witness a fierce battle of power between the two formations. The Congress and Left, reduced to the peripheral players, will outwardly or inwardly bank on Nitish and Lalu to stop the NaMo juggernaut in the state.

And be it the susashan (good governance) tag holder, Nitish or maverick Lalu and BJP's poster boy, Sushil Kumar Modi, or the fledgling icon of Mahadalits and chief minister, Jitan Ram Manjhi - each of these leaders has equally high stakes involved in the New Year. Whatever background and tags they hold so far - these heavyweights will, in all likelihood, have to re-invent themselves to say up in the pecking order in face of the broader change in the political narratives with Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs at all India level.

There are few to question Nitish's track record as the chief minister for nearly nine years. Be it the road, education, health, women empowerment, electric power, law and order and overall infrastructure - Nitish scripted a new saga of progress on almost all the scores. He, in fact, snubbed the BJP, for projecting a 'retrograde' Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate last year and wished to emerge as a major player in shaping the country's fortune after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

But Nitish's gamble boomerang with Narendra Modi-led BJP decimating his JDU in May Lok Sabha polls and in the process compelling him to cede his chair to a Mahadalit, Manjhi. In a way, Nitish - who earned praise of the likes of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and several other policy and governance experts, became clueless in figuring out why he ended up cutting sorry figures at the general elections. 'If his track record as a reasonably good chief minister did no pay at the Lok Sabha polls what is the guarantee it will pay at the Assembly polls?' asked a JDU leader, adding: 'Stung by the unexpected fall in his electoral fortune, he buried the 20-year-old hostility with his archrival Lalu and has emerged a key player in the merger of the old Janata Parivar factions.'

The grapevine had it that Nitish's decision to tie with the forces - he despised and criticised for years - is the part of the strategy to 're-invent' himself in the face of the new challenges thrown by Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combine at the BJP's helm. If his new political strategy works, he can see the possibility of staying relevant in the politics of the state. If the BJP succeeds against his new game-plan, it may mark a virtual end of road for the man referred to as 'Susashan Babu' all through his eight years of rule.

Lalu, who in company with his wife, Rabri Devi, ruled the state for 15 long years and kept on calling the shots in politics at the Centre as the railway minister till 2009, was driven to the periphery in the last five years.

His saga of downfall continued with his RJD heavily losing to the JDU-led NDA in the 2010 Assembly elections and then Narendra Modi-led BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

In between, Lalu got further crippled politically with the court sentencing him in a fodder scam case and barring him from contesting the polls.

In an apparent bid to save his existence and relevance, Lalu hurriedly accepted Nitish's offer to get united with other factions of the Janata Parivar. The JDU-RJD-Congress alliance, at the outset, paid off well with the new entity faring reasonably well in the August by-elections.

The alliance reversed the Lok Sabha poll trends, winning six against the BJP's four in the Assembly by-elections. The extent to which Lalu succeeds in saving his relevance will depend on how the Janata Parivar merger shapes up and how it fares at the Assembly polls.

Ironical it may sound but the rise of the BJP under the stewardship of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah coincides with perceptible fall in party's poster boy, Sushil Modi's political status in the state. Till he functioned as the deputy to Nitish for eight years, Sushil was an undisputed leader of the BJP in the state. He worked as the key link between Nitish and the BJP high command. But the emergence of Narendra Modi-Amit Shah's combination has thrown the possibility of change in the status of leaders in the state.

The grapevine has it that the BJP in all likelihood will contest the Assembly elections portraying the Prime Minister as it did in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand. The party, in the event of emerging victorious, will take a call on who will be the chief minister. If the BJP goes the way in Bihar it went in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand, Sushil will find increasingly hard to stay at the top in the party's pecking order. The Bihar BJP has many leaders - Nand Kishore Yadav, Satya Narayan Arya, Prem Kumar - who have openly expressed their wish to head the government if the party finds them 'worthy' of it. Thus, Sushil faces it as a daunting task to stay relevant as his archrivals, Nitish and Lalu are facing.

Manjhi is a quintessential chief minister by accident. Faced with massive electoral defeat at the Lok Sabha polls, Nitish resigned on moral grounds, offering Manjhi the chief minister's chair. Now, Manjhi is believed to have the lurking desire to keep his status in the post-Assembly poll scenario, too. He invariably flaunts his Mahadalit origin and goads his caste men to increase their numerical strength and educational standard, apparently, to stay in the hunt.

The BJP too is said to have its eyes on him to drive wedge in Nitish's trust with the Mahadalits. Given the volatile nature of the power struggle in the state, it is hard to guess what will be Manjhi's fate in post Assembly poll scenario. What looks certain is he will continue to be the chief minister till the end of the Assembly polls.

The Dalit leader, Ram Vilas Paswan, Lalu's aide Ram Kripal Yadav and Koiri leader Upendra Kushwaha joined the BJP-led alliance ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. But the Assembly polls will actually prove if they succeed in getting their caste men's vote in the BJP's favour. They too will have busy days in proving their worth in their new-found political abode all through 2015.