Jharkhand’s BJP-led coalition government on Monday slumped to the verge of becoming a minority government and gasped for survival after its enraged ally JMM announced its decision to withdraw support after a wobbly 28-month partnership.

While the Bihar capital’s colonial history refuses to fade from the still popular British names of the city’s roads despite efforts by successive governments, the irony has now staged an unlikely political cameo in the state legislature and begged for introspection.

He sat in a boat to cross a river in central Bihar and, on reaching the poverty-stricken village, he sat on a humble string cot surrounded by half-clad men and shy women as he chatted with the formerly rat-eating Musahar villagers about the health services available to them.