Modi, Nitish may troll each other but in personality traits they mirror each other

It has been barely three months since Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar parted ways with his long-term ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the elevation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the saffron party's PM nominee for the 2014 General Elections. And yet, it seems incredible how the two leaders were ever friends.

The political rhetoric emerging out of frequent verbal duels between the swashbuckling archrivals shows the two were destined for different political courses. At the same time, as if to prove that 'god fulfils himself in many ways', the two leaders share striking similarities in more than usual ways.

There is absolutely no evidence to suggest the two are brothers lost in Kumbh, but a quick glance at these 10 points show them up as bhais:

1. Love Me Tender. Modi and Kumar both love their carefully created image. One has created this hard Hindutva image, that he is reluctant to shed even if shedding it may help politically. Nitish has that smiling Rampuri image and he sustains it by his sharp actions. Both keep the local media under pressure and both strike back with vengeance if a negative report slips in the morning paper.

2. Humbly Yours. They always flaunt their humble backgrounds and showcase their struggle on the way up. Modi as a chaiwalla, Nitish as 'Saadharan Parivar ka ladka'. 

3. Teflon Coated: Both the leaders enjoy fairly honest images. Even in the era of a scam a day, no major financial irregularity has come to sully their images in their long political careers. 

4. Trust Nobody:  In their states, they have both promoted bureaucracy at the cost of politicians. Gujarat and Bihar have made bureaucrats powerful because Modi and Kumar do not trust politicians. There's no no. 2 in Gujarat government and after BJP's Sushil Modi exited, it's clear that Nitish too did not nurture his own deputy.

5. Develop-men: Both the leaders have come to be known as development drivers. The BJP is hard-selling Modi as 'Vikas Purush' in the run-up to the 2014 General Elections. Kumar started from a low base point but the rate of growth in Bihar has been good enough, often beating Gujarat in speed, if not in volume.

6. Fevicol Se: They are both viewed as occupiers by their rivals. Once given an opportunity, Narendra Modi became larger than his party and decimated the Opposition in the state and within the party. Once in power, Kumar wiped out a giant like Lalu and he has no challenger in his party either. BJP president Rajnath Singh plays second fiddle to Modi, Sharad Yadav does the same to Nitish. 

7. Superiority Complex: Modi and Kumar believe in leaving behind matchless legacies as extensions of their exalted political beings. Modi has championed the world's tallest statue. Nitish has proposed world's largest temple complex. Note the superlatives.

8. Hard as A Nut: They are both hardliners. Modi is a hardliner when it comes to his brand of Hindutva. Kumar is hardliner when it comes to his brand of secularism. Modi will not wear a cap for symbolism, Nitish will break a long-term alliance for its symbolism.

9. Un-Family Men: They have both kept their families aside and out of their public lives. Narendra Modi is single but has kept his family low-profile. Kumar's wife, a teacher by profession, died in 2007. Very few people know he has an engineer son.

10. Style bhais: They do not shave, they trim. Kumar sports a short white stubble on most days while Modi has what can be called a beard.
And yet, the recent war of words shows these similarities do not bring them any closer. It keeps them drifting apart. Like two banks of the same river put asunder by sands of time.