Laloo Yadav's RJD came out with its election manifesto only last Saturday. The Congress continued with its bickering over seat sharing till late last week. CPI too had a running feud with Laloo on seat allotment till the last moment. All these contributed to the delay in the election fever catching up in the opposition ranks.

But now that these irritants are over, the state will witness a rash of electioneering and political parties are readying their star performers to address election meetings. As many as 19 constituencies will go to the polls on September 18. This includes Hazaribagh, where finance minister Yashwant Sinha is contesting as the BJP candidate, Ranchi, Dumka, Godda, Sasaram, Jahanabad, Chatra, Khunti and Lohardaga. The second and third phase of polling will be held on September 25 and October 3.

Thefight in Bihar is basically between the BJP-Samata combine and the RJD-Congress alliance. Janata Dal (U), now part of the National Democratic Alliance, does not seem to be in reckoning in any consequential way.

BJP is pinning hope mainly in the Chhotanagpur region of South Bihar where its separate Vananchal plank has paid rich electoral dividend in the past. In the 1998 election , the BJP won 20 seats, mostly from this region. This time round, the party expects to improve its last year's tally.

In most of the South Bihar seats, BJP is pitted against Congress whose pledge for a separate Jharkhand state has attracted the voters as well. The BJP , however, seems to have an edge with the RSS having made major inroads in the region in the last decade.

North Bihar politics has revolved round Laloo Yadav for the past eight years with the Congress party nearly decimated during this period. Once the citadel of Congress, North Bihar went in the hands of Laloo, thanks to his social engineering.

Just when thesituation seemed to be looking up for Congress, the leadership blundered by supporting Laloo in his fight against the Centre on the issue of imposing Presidnt's rule in the state. A large number of Congressmen deserted the party in protest. The Congress repeated its mistake for the second time when it decided to play second fiddle to Laloo by settling for only 14 seats in the state.

A clever Laloo gave only six seats to Congress in the north as against eight in the tricky south. The Congress is placed very comfortably in all the six seats in the north, albeit in alliance with RJD. But even if the party had decided to go it alone, it could have done well. In the 1998 elections, the Congress had to contend with just five seats with the larger cake going to Laloo Yadav.

The Samata Party is likely to do well in constituencies where leaders like Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes are contesting. The rest of its seats are open to tough contest this time. For one thing, the north Bihar voters have not liked theSamata teaming up with BJP in the Centre which decided to bifurcate the state.

Laloo forges ahead because of the caste combinations coupled with emotive issues like division of Bihar. Laloo has single-handedly opposed bifurcation of Bihar from the beginning. He has total support of North Bihar voters on this issue.

The issues in this election are same as in other parts of the country -- Kargil, Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin and Vajpayee. Surprisingly, corruption is no major issue in the state which till recently went under convulsions in the aftermath of fodder scam involving no less than the then chief minister Laloo Yadav himself. Overall, considering the complex caste alchemy in the state, political parties do not expect any major change in the final tally. The result is likely to show the two combinations in more or less the same strength as at present.