At 75, and afflicted by multiple ailments, Lalu Prasad is frail but remains feisty and full of fight.

Dynasty politics? Lalu dismisses the suggestion out of hand.

“Mera agla ka agla generation bhi Saran se jeetega (My next generation and the next too will win from Saran),” the RJD patriarch’s aggression belies his frail health.

It’s Thursday evening. The former Bihar chief minister, recuperating after a kidney transplant, is ensconced in a chair on the porch at the RJD central election office on the outskirts of Chhapra town.

Daughter Rohini Acharya, 44, who donated one of her kidneys to Lalu, is the candidate from Saran. But for Lalu, winning the constituency is more than just paying a debt of gratitude. Saran represents for him perhaps a last battle to reclaim a pocket borough the BJP snatched from him 10 years ago.

Lalu was in his 20s when he won the seat 47 years ago, in 1977, as a Janata Party candidate after a stint in jail during the Emergency. He and the late Ram Vilas Paswan were among the youngest heroes of the students’ movement led by Jaya Prakash Narayan to be elected.

But Lalu lost his hold over Saran when the Narendra Modi years began in 2014. He won the seat the last time in 2009 but was disqualified — and barred from contesting polls — after his conviction and sentencing in a fodder scam case in 2013.

In 2014, Lalu fielded his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi and in 2019, his son’s father-in-law Chandrika Rai, an established RJD leader and son of former chief minister Daroga Prasad Rai. Neither proved a match for a Rajiv Pratap Rudy riding a rampaging Modi wave.

The BJP has again fielded Rudy, who had first won from Saran in 1996 when Lalu was chief minister of Bihar.

No voter in the constituency sees the daughter as the real contestant. “Ladai toh Laluji lad rahe hain (It’s Laluji who’s fighting the battle),” said Indradeo Prasad, a voter in Parsa village.

Since Lalu’s health doesn’t allow him to go out and campaign, he has parked himself since May 14 at the newly built party election office, micro-managing a constituency he knows like the back of his hand.

“Pura confident hain, hum jeetenge (I’m fully confident of victory),” Lalu tells The Telegraph as RJD leaders arrive one after the other to provide him with ground reports.

“Chhapra (as the Saran Lok Sabha seat is popularly called) will lead the ‘Modi bhagao’ campaign across India,” Lalu says.

But a sense of concern has gripped the RJD with only two days left of campaigning before the May 20 vote. Rohini has been ill since Wednesday.

“She has suffered a heat stroke,” an RJD leader said. “Bukhar hai (She has fever).”

On Wednesday, Rohini had gone out to campaign around 10am but returned after some time, feeling unwell.

She is staying in a first-floor room at the election office while Lalu is on the ground floor. On Thursday afternoon, a retired doctor from Patna’s government-run medical college and two nurses were summoned to check up on Rohini’s and Lalu’s health.

“Laluji’s health doesn’t permit him to work much. He comes out only twice, in the morning to meet party workers and leaders to give them direction, and then in the evening to take reports from them,” an RJD leader said, refusing to be named.

Yet, despite doctors’ advice against going out, Lalu left the office on Wednesday afternoon to visit the home of Parai Rai, a local RJD strongman and panchayat head, in Phulwariya village, 25km away.

He met party workers and local people at Rai’s birthday party. “Mukhiyaji has a strong hold over all the castes, particularly the extremely backward castes (EBCs), in his panchayat,” an RJD source said, indicating why Lalu had risked his health.

In Saran, where the battle has traditionally been seen as one between the upper caste Rajputs and the OBC Yadavs, the lower castes do play a decisive role.

Since Nitish Kumar came to power in 2005, he has nursed the EBCs as his vote base. The BJP’s desperation to get Nitish away from the RJD alliance owed to its desire to avoid a split in the EBC vote.

“It seems all the EBCs are with Modi; he has won their votes with 5kg free rations,” an RJD leader said, declining to be identified. “I cannot say this to Laluji but I’m sharing it with you.”

Lalu, however, is upbeat. “All the communities and castes are with us. The prices and the lack of jobs have made people’s lives miserable and they want to throw Modi out,” he says.

He lauds son Tejashwi Yadav for single-handedly anchoring the party’s campaign, holding 10 election rallies a day.

After Saran, Lalu will focus on the Pataliputra seat, where his eldest daughter Misa Bharti is taking on his old aide, now in the BJP, Ramkripal Yadav. Pataliputra goes to the polls on June 1, so Lalu has time.

Saran votes on May 20