India, May 18 -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently said at an election rally in Hajipur, a town some 20 km north of Patna, that he had not come to the town to campaign and secure victory for Chirag Paswan - chief of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), an NDA ally - as his win was a foregone conclusion.

He was there, Modi told the cheering crowd, to pay off a debt owed to Chirag Paswan's father, the late Ram Vilas Paswan, a former Union minister and eight-time Lok Sabha member and two-time Rajya Sabha MP.

The boisterous crowd at the Ekara ground along National Highway 22 greeted the PM's statement with a huge roar.

Modi then went on to say that the best way to offer tributes to Ram Vilas Paswan was to ensure that his son won with a...