Beyond Patna, voices of discontent but key to Opp success: can Tejashwi widen RJD’s tent, bring them in?

As you step outside Patna, the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government’s infrastructure development story that seems so visible in Patna, lurches and becomes more fitful. The wide and gleaming new bridge and the recently constructed 4-lane highway represent a smoother connection — but also etch a sharp and glaring disconnect. Long distance travel has been made far easier and shorter now in Bihar, but away from Patna, the distinction between rural and urban still blurs perilously, the narrow road is still all too prone to the ubiquitous traffic snarl and water-logging. Even Muzaffarpur, Bihar’s second most urbanised centre after Patna, also designated a “Smart City”, continues to battle the dismal “jam” and “ jal jamaav ” ineffectually. In Sitamarhi, residents point angrily to the Mehsaul overbri