heyOn the afternoon of September 29, as families flocked to packed Durga Puja pandals in Patna, election strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor presented a different kind of scene. Calling a press conference, he waved a dossier in front of journalists making fresh allegations against some senior leaders of the ruling Janata Dal (United)-BJP government in Bihar. Kishor’s target was five senior figures: veteran JD(U) minister Ashok Chaudhary, and deputy CM Samrat Chaudhary, health minister Mangal Pandey, state unit chief Dilip Jaiswal and BJP West Champaran MP Sanjay Jaiswal. Each allegation, new and old, was accompanied by its own set of legal notices, threats of lawsuits and pledges to publish more documents so that the dispute quickly became both a legal contest and a media spectacle.