Chhapra, May 31: A role-reversal in many ways, the prestige battle between RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav and the BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy was fought here today amid unprecedented security.

On April 26, Rudy was a Union minister and his opponent was a mere Rajya Sabha member. But Laloo Prasad fought the election today as a Union minister while Rudy had become a mere BJP mortal.

The 5,000-odd state police jawans who were on duty today obediently stood at a distance of 150 ft from every polling station while central paramilitary forces took charge of proceedings. Inside the booths, employees of the Union government kept things under control.

The entire exercise seemed out of sync, especially in the context of the April 26 mayhem, because nothing seemed to move in the constituency without the permission of the paramilitary forces. Chhapra resembled a military cantonment with 60 companies of the CRPF standing guard throughout the constituency.

Last time’s troublemakers could not be spotted anywhere, except in a handful of booths where they were promptly taken to task. But the poor voter turnout — preliminary estimates put it at around 40 per cent — had both sides wondering about the outcome of the day’s exercise. The votes will be counted on Wednesday.

Rudy claimed that with Laloo Prasad already elected an MP (from Madhepura), a large number of electors had decided not to “waste” their votes and instead support him. But the RJD maintained that this was not a factor at all because their supporters came out in good numbers to defeat the “communal” BJP.

A random survey of the polling stations indicated that the RJD’s claim carried more weight. “We know that a non-BJP government has assumed office in Delhi. But that is not a deciding factor with the voters. They are exercising their franchise according to their choice,” a BJP supporter admitted.

At a news conference here in the evening, Laloo Prasad said he was “fully satisfied” with the polling.