Even a cat is known to have only nine lives. Will Bihar chief minister and Kurmi leader Nitish Kumar be able to break this conventional wisdom and prove himself to be much smarter than a cat in the next round of Bihar Assembly elections? That will depend on his ability to comprehend the evolving situation and managing his down side. His latest move to forge an alliance with Lalu and Congress to halt the Namo wave by way of solidifying the Muslim vote bank is clearly designed to manage his downside risk by preventing the fragmentation of the 17 per cent Muslim vote bank of Bihar. He may well succeed in this mission. But his success will be also fraught with immeasurable downside consequences of solidifying the Hindu vote bank. Does he have a plan to manage this risk? At the moment he does not seem to have one; and if he has one, no one except him knows about that. Be that as it may, the Kurmi leader is clearly getting swept into the eye of a caste and communal tornado he is so happy to unleash.