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Erratic trains, false promises hurt Lalu Prasad
Ask anyone in Chapra about Lalu Prasad and the response is the same - he came, he saw, he conquered, but he didn't do a thing.
Battered streets tell their story, as do the stench from open gutters and grimaces on the faces of people on the road - all's not quite right at Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's home ground Chapra.
Ask anyone in Chapra about Lalu Prasad and the response is the same - he came, he saw, he conquered, but he didn't do a thing.
"He has just not done anything, not a thing," Gyanesh Pandey, a local who owns a tyre and cycle repair shop, said.
Last year, Lalu Prasad won the Lok Sabha seat from Chapra by over 65,000 votes, beating the Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
In the current Assembly elections, Chapra legislator Udit Ray, who is from Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), will have to fight really hard to emulate his boss's success.
Giving him tough fight is the Lok Janashakti Party's (LJP) Jai Narayan Singh Solanki and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) candidate Ram Prabesh Ray. And popular opinion seems most inclined to Solanki, a former Zila Parishad chairman.
Said tutor Rakesh Lal: "Solanki knows all about our problems and he has really shown enthusiasm in trying to get things fixed. If he wins, hopefully there'll be some change."
Many certainly seem to think that the RJD's days in Chapra are over.
"Lalu has not given anything that he promised," Romila Bhan, a housewife, said. "He is the railway minister and you should see the state of local trains in Chapra.
"The trains come when they want, leave when they want. There is no timetable, no one follows anything and we have no idea when to expect a train. We are poor people and the train is the fastest and cheapest. How can we work if they function like this?"
Said Suraj Singh, "Lalu used to be a good man. But from the time he has won, he thinks this constituency is his property.
"Lalu had promised to build schools, give us power, better roads. Where is anything? We've got nothing. In fact, from the time he has won, he's barely ever shown his face here. He has taken us completely for granted."
Chapra gets about four hours of power every day and garbage lies piled on roadsides for days. There have been new schools - but only on paper.
But in spite of all the problems, such is the charisma of Lalu Prasad that people admit that at the last minute he might turn the tables on his opponents. "He still has time," said Pandey. "We go to the polls only on the 23rd (of February).
"It might just take one visit and he can turn everything in his favour."
