The state is gearing up for round III of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pre-election Parivartan rally on Tuesday.

The previous two rallies saw a flare-up between the NDA and the grand alliance over Narendra Modi's remark on the DNA of Nitish Kumar in Muzaffarpur and backwardness of Bihar.

This time, Modi would address rallies in Ara and Saharsa in south and north Bihar, respectively, and the focus would be on the politics of the packages. In Ara, he is expected to announce a Rs 56000cr package for national and state highways in Bihar. In Saharsa, he is likely to announce the package for flood-prone areas of the region.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar appears to be in a "wait-and-watch" mode on the eve of the Prime Minister's third visit. "We have been struggling for special status category for a long time. There is no indication that the Centre would accord the status to Bihar. Most of the economic packages announced are repackaged from the old announcements made by the previous government. But yet, I would not like to make a statement on the issue now. I would wait for the PM to make the announcements," said Nitish Kumar.

A heap of foundation stones and plaques greets the people of Bihar in the run-up to the Assembly polls. After Nitish and Modi crossed words over the Patna-Bakhtiyarpur rail project at a government function in Patna on July 25, the state is poised for another round of war of words with Modi suddenly changing his August 18 programme and going to Ara to lay the foundation stone of the long-awaited Ara-Patna-Buxar four-lane road and another rail bridge over the Ganga before going to Saharsa to address his third Parivartan rally.

"The Buxar-Patna four-lane project is an old project and its work took off in 2012. The Union surface transport ministry had given a safe passage to Gammon India, which backed out of work and which was not penalised. The fresh tender of the project is yet to be completed. As for the bridge over the Ganga in Mokama, even the detailed project report has not been prepared, the alignment of the bridge has not been decided," said road construction minister Lallan Singh on Friday.

BJP leader and former road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav retorted by declaring that the Bihar minister's statement was misleading. "Both the design and DPRs of the two projects have been cleared. The companies, supposed to make in public-private partnership mode, pulled out. Now, the Centre is making these projects through its own funds," he said.

Nand Kishore stressed that there was nothing wrong with the Prime Minister laying a foundation stone of these projects. "On the other hand, it is wrong for chief minister Nitish Kumar to inaugurate projects which have not been completed," he said.

Inaugurations and laying of foundation stones have been a major issue for the past month. The chief minister has been on a inauguration and foundation-laying spree. He inaugurated the mega Sheikhpura flyover, which the BJP claimed was started when it was a partner of the JDU and its man, Nand Kishore Yadav, was the road construction minister. On July 17, he laid foundation stones of 415 rural drinking water projects at more than Rs 629 crore in the state from Patna. Similarly, he inaugurated 295 panchayat buildings in the state from Patna. Nitish inaugurated his ambitious Patna Museum, recently drawing taunts from the BJP for inaugurating a project in which just a gallery was complete. Recently, he laid the foundation stone for the building of Aryabhatt Knowledge University, which was established five years ago. On Monday, in Gopalganj, he laid the foundation stone of 270 projects at one go.

Modi, on his visit to Patna on July 25, inaugurated and laid foundation stones for six projects, including the new IIT-Patna building in Bihta. The JDU was quick to drill holes into the show by declaring that several of these projects were approved during the UPA regime. It pointed out that the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Yojana Modi launched would require the state to pitch in with 40 per cent expenses compared to just 10 per cent in the Rajiv Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana run by the UPA government. For now, its foundation stone versus foundation stone in Bihar.