@Star Wars Arithmethic is right, Chemistry is not!
& you know the importance of both
Except the Muslim vote, the other constituents of the MGB are not comfortable with each other. Yadavs hate NiKu, Almost Everybody except Muslims & Yadavs fears Lalu.
This volatile mixture should have been a disaster.[For eg:- Like an explosion in a chem. lab---bringing Sodium & water together] It should have imploded apart with rebels, independents, proxy candidates, infighting etc
Yet it has become less volatile due to the efforts made by both Lalu & NiKu, who have worked REALLY hard to unite their votebanks. You may hate them, but they have done a lot of hard work.
For more than a year they were giving rallies, encouraging the morale of their cadre & bringing the caste leaders together, while Bihar BJP was sleeping(for most of the time). Yes, they didn't succeed totally, but the mixture can atleast stand still till the election ends & poses a threat now.
And TBH the BJP should have hammered straight the corruption of the Congress[But if you don't intensify investigations against their leaders after 15 months of power & send none of them to jail in the mean time, then you have little right to say a word on it]
This Election should have been easy for the BJP had it been vigilant & careful! Had it not been for Modi, the MGB would have won.
Like it or not Nitish wanted to defeat the BJP & Modi-Shah;
he knew that there was hope for if RJD & JDU come together, it's a huge risk which could potentially backfire like it should have. But that's the only way he could become the CM again & defeat the BJP.
& unlike Nitish, if Lalu loses again he could be finished forever unlike NiKu who can wait till 2020 to defeat the BJP. & thus Lalu agreed.
It was a huge risk & it has survived till now & can fight the elections, with some help from Prashant Kishore. [But on the anti-BJP front, Prashant could have done better]
But had it totally worked as it was hoped it would at the end & reached it's full potential, BJP would be out of competition.
On first sight the media jokers may have called it advantage MGB 1 year back; but anyone with closer observation could say it was truely advantage BJP on the ground.
When both votebanks of the alliance hate each other, what guarantee was there it could work??
But yes, due to NiKu being in sarkar & lalu's goondas many people must have kept their mouths shut till the ballot box.
& let me say that in any byelection in a state, the ruling party has a greater chance of success, in the byelections after LS 2014, people knew NiKu would stay in power regardless of the result. Maybe that's why they voted for him in the hope he would do something for them or atleast wouldn't spite & ignore them.
BJP won 4/10 inspite of being highly complacent, that itself was bad for the MGB.