A group of boys enjoying a game of tennis at the newly built courts inside the Girls High School on the Dak Bunglow road in Chhapra want change. Admitting that the last 10 years have been very good for Bihar in terms of development and law & order, they add that it is time for change as a new regime can ensure faster development of the state.
The eldest among them is Sudeep Ranjan, a civil service aspirant, praises the tenure of Nitish Kumar as Bihar Chief Minister but then says the state can develop much more under the BJP.
"There can be better synchronization if the same party is at the Centre and state. The time has come for BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) to rule in Bihar. We youngsters want change. No doubt Nitish Kumar has done a tremendous job but now we want to try a new party," says Sudeep.
His friends Piyush Singh, who is in the first year of Bachelor of Commerce at Rajendra College in Chhapra and will vote for the first time in the Assembly elections on October 28, and MBBS student Ankit concur with him. Aknit, who is pursuing MBBS from Muzaffarpur, says Bihar needs to development at a much faster rate and for this a new party must come to power.
Pointing to the tennis courts where they come every evening to practice, Piyush, the youngest of the trio, says it was built from the MPLAD funds provided by Saran MP Rajiv Pratap Singh Rudy and now youngsters like him have a good avenue to play. All the three say they play tennis to ensure physical fitness and such sporting venues are much needed in Bihar where youngsters and budding players can hone their skills.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to give BJP-led National Democratic Alliance a chance to rule Bihar has an appeal in the city. A middle aged businessman Ashwini Kumar who runs a fast food joint says Chhapra has seen some development but more needs to be done.
“Electricity supply has improved tremendously. Now we have 18-20 hours of power. Don’t even ask me how it was a decade back. But now we need to change the government. There is a lot to be done in Bihar and BJP is the party which can do it. My family has three votes and we always do our duty," he says.
While admitting that caste does play an important role during elections, he claims that for him the main consideration is the party and then the candidate. “I don’t vote on the basis of caste," he adds.
But a rebel in the fray has made it tough for the official BJP candidate Dr CN Gupta who is already facing a formidable rival in sitting Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA Randhir Singh, son of veteran leader Prabhunath Singh, who has represented Saran parliamentary constituency in the Lok Sabha. BJP leader Kanhaiya Singh, who lost in the August 2014 Assembly bypolls from Chhapra after its then MLA Janardan Singh Sigriwal was elected to the Lok Sabha, is now contesting as an independent after Gupta was preferred.
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