RJD supporters miss Lalu Prasad in Saran

SARAN: Lalu Prasad might be missing from the electioneering, but for RJD supporters in this Lok Sabha seat, the incarcerated politician still remains the "biggest leader", whose party faces an uphill task of reclaiming the bastion it lost to the BJP last election.
For RJD, this is the first election without its star campaigner, whose younger son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav tried his best to keep the morale of his partymen up."Lalu-ji poore Bihar ke sabse bade neta hai (Lalu is the biggest leader of Bihar). He has been jailed on false charges," Nagendra Rai (52), a farmer in Sonepur village, said.
Known for his signature one liners, Lalu is imprisoned in fodder scam cases and could not campaign as his bail plea was recently rejected by the Supreme Court.
Comprising six assembly segments, the seat, known as Chapra before the delimitation of parliamentary constituencies in 2008, was won by Lalu four times --1977, 1989, 2004 and 2009.
However, the RJD lost Saran in 2014 after BJP candidate and former Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy defeated Lalu's wife and former Bihar CM Rabri Devi in 2014. To redeem its lost glory, RJD has this time fielded six-time MLA Chandrika Rai, who is the father of Lalu's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav's estranged wife Aishwarya Rai.