Traditionally caste has always played a major role in Bihar elections and this year too it is no different. What emerges from the India TV-C Voter opinion poll is that Nitish Kumar has the advantage of the Muslim and Yadav votes thanks to Lalu but the question remains how much votes would JDU’s contestants actually garner on their own. On the other hand Manjhi and Paswan will ensure that majority of the Dalit votes go to NDA. However what will finally impact the poll picture is the manner in which tickets are to be distributed amongst contestants – who gets what, who gets how much, which caste gets what and which caste gets how much – this equation will determine the poll outcome on practically every seat in this closely contested elections.