IT’S 11:15 pm on a Sunday. But the guard at the grand bungalow in Sheikhpura, Patna, has his hands full. Late-night visitors throng the gate. The driveway is packed with over two dozen vehicles, some sporting the flags of Bihar’s big local parties. The sprawling lawn is agog with the chatter of a motley jumble. Aspiring politicians, academics, businessmen, rural folk whose next train is in the morning, youth with no job but with big ideas, males, females, about 100 faces, all lit up by their mobile phone screens and by the glint of hope. Finally, there emerges the man they are waiting to meet, smiling, clad in a simple white kurta-pajama, dispensing handshakes and pats on the shoulder, wearing the ease of a well-rehearsed neta but with the brightness of…
