In BJP’s Patna Sahib bastion, Ravi Shankar Prasad sits pretty as he rides on Modi, vikas

The nameplate on the house in Patna’s Boring Road area reads: “Prasad and Associates”. This is the residence of senior BJP leader and ex-Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, the ruling party’s candidate for the high-profile Patna Sahib Lok Sabha seat.

Prasad, clad in a white kurta pyjamas and a mustard-coloured bandi (half jacket), emerges from his house on a sunny Tuesday morning as he proceeds to meet his supporters and give them a “pep talk”. One of his aides ensures that essential items like water bottles and scarves are in his car as Prasad prepares to head to the first destination of the day – the phal mandi (fruit market) – where he intends to interact with the fruit traders.

Prasad, who is also a senior advocate, speaks to The Indian Express en route the phal mandi, a six-km drive, and touches upon many national and local issues. “We are telling people how Prime Minister Narendra Modi has transformed India from being a fragile economy to the fifth largest in the world while strengthening the cultural and religious heritage of the country. I am happy people relate to me as the lawyer of Ram Lalla,” he says when asked about the theme of his campaign. He quips that the election is being held to “choose the PM and not mukhiyas”.

The sitting Patna Sahib MP, Prasad will be up against the Congress’s Anshul Avijit, the son of former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, who is the Opposition INDIA bloc’s joint candidate.

The BJP has held on to this seat since it came into existence after the 2008 delimitation. Earlier called Patna, the capital and its surrounding areas are now divided into two Lok Sabha constituencies – Patliputra and Patna Sahib.

Avijit, campaigning in another part of the constituency, seems confident and claims