PATNA, Apr 7 : Proverbially, the crows and elephants might be having wisdom talks in the state's jungles of Bhim Bandh and other terrains of Munger and Jamui, where Maoists have also been greasing their guns, but voters in the vast countryside straggling 40 parliamentary constituencies are utterly confused in reading the "line and length" of political leaders and various candidates in fray, as a local cartoonist showed it in his recent strip.

However, the "line and length" of the NDA, particularly the BJP, appears to be clear: Attack UPA, vilify, discredit and blast RJD-LJP combine, ignore the Congress as poor damsel in distress, and refuse to take notice of the United Left Bloc (ULB), which has fielded 33 candidates and has also been hoping to win quite a few seats. It was palpably apparent on Saturday.

State NDA convener Nand Kishore Yadav, who has whirlwind electioneering tour, including in Nawada and Rohtas districts, under his belt, said, "The UPA is neither intact, nor united, nor progressive, and nor does it have any form of alliance. Its constituents have disintegrated into three groups -- Congress, RJD-LJP, and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)."

Indeed, parting of ways by the RJD-LJP combine and the decision of the Congress to contest most of the 40 seats have left both the observers and the NDA leaders guessing as to whose stakes it will ultimately burn or harm, of the NDA or of the RJD. Even though the Congress is still in the process of announcing its candidates, it has definitely raised alarm bells in the NDA camp, forcing the BJP to make concerted attack on the performance of the UPA government, Congress and the RJD-LJP.

Yadav, appearing to give proper sound bytes, said that the leaders of the UPA were making baseless statements out of nervousness. "We don't understand what they (Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan) mean. They are contesting against the Congress, and yet would accept Congress' candidate as PM," Yadav said, adding: "We are seeking votes on the basis of the performance of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government at the Centre and also for the work delivered by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar."

The state NDA convener also said that Lalu has been rattled by the dispersal of the Yadav caste votes from his party, and, therefore, he has allied with Mulayam Singh Yadav to give the impression that Yadavs were united.

Nand Kishore insisted that the Bihar NDA was not banking on caste combination. Asked to elaborate if the splitting of Dalit into Dalit and Mahadalit sections would lead to any advantage to the NDA candidates, he said, "We have launched developmental activities to bring Mahadalit sections into the mainstream."