The grand alliance projected Nitish Kumar as its chief ministerial candidate pitching him directly against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Exit polls have predicted a wafer-thin advantage for the Nitish Kumar-Lalu Yadav led grand alliance in Bihar, where polling ended on Thursday evening. All principal players will hold their breath till results are out on Sunday, November 8.
Not least Nitish Kumar, who is seeking a third straight term as chief minister. He perhaps has the most at stake.
The grand alliance projected Mr Kumar as its chief ministerial candidate pitching him directly against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the face of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's campaign.
The BJP chose not to project a chief ministerial candidate in Bihar, again relying on PM Modi's appeal and party president Amit Shah's election organising skills.
For the BJP, winning Bihar is crucial, but it has other elections to fight.
As for Nitish Kumar's ally Lalu Yadav, disqualified from contesting elections by the court, he was never in the race for chief minister. He has initiated his next generation into electoral politics with these polls.
But for Mr Kumar, losing this election will not just mean stepping down from the chief minister's post after a decade.
A defeat for the grand alliance is likely to derail its larger project: an anti-BJP alliance for future assembly elections and ultimately the Lok Sabha election of 2019. And for Mr Kumar, such a derailment will put in jeopardy, any prime ministerial ambitions he may nurture.
A win on the other hand, will give his partner Lalu Yadav the task of stitching an anti-BJP alliance, like former CPI(M) General Secretary, Harkishen Singh Surjeet did more than a decade ago.