Sunday, October 23 2005 15:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Raghopur (Bihar): Amid consolidation of anti- Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) votes, particularly those of Rajputs and non-Yadav backward castes, in National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) favour, the RJD-led Secular Democratic Front alliance's likely chief ministerial candidate Rabri Devi is locked in a keen electoral battle with a political greenhorn.

"Why should we vote for Rabri?" is the common refrain among anti-Lalu Prasad voters in the constituency, where Yadav's account for 53 per cent of the 21,19,163 electorate, but the RJD chief's better half has an edge over her rivals.

Giving a personal touch to her election campaign during which she not only seeks votes, but eats whatever is offered by housewives to strike instant rapport, she says "I will eat whatever is offered". She has spent nearly five days on the dusty terrain of the constituency largely untouched by development.

Janata Dal-United's (JD-U) Satish Kumar, being regarded as 'apan bouwa' (our very own child), is giving sleepless nights to RJD chief Lalu Prasad who has held road shows and addressed a series of street-corner meetings to mobilise votes for his wife.

Satish Kumar, once a blue-eyed boy of Lalu, recently fell out with him and joined the JD(U) to have a shot at electoral politics against a political heavyweight for whose victory he had toiled in the past.

If the JD(U) nominee, a Yadav, succeeds in making a major dent in the sizeable Yadav votebank of RJD, which plays a decisive role in the polls, he may spring a surprise with perceptible consolidation of Rajputs, who account for 65,000 votes, in favour of the NDA.