Patna, Feb. 10: Ram Vilas Paswan is leaving little to chance. A day in his campaign helicopter shows an energetic campaigner at work.

His copter plots a carefully charted course, promises at each halt backed by a simple claim. He is the man who gets things done.

Seen from the air, a checkerboard of green fields of winter wheat contrasts with the rich brown mud banks of the river Kosi. Roads are mostly long dirt tracks, and boats and cycles the major way of getting about.

His spell in the telecom ministry opened the way for cheap mobile phones. Mobile phones, once the preserve of the rich, can now be seen on the boat of fishermen on the river, and he takes credit for starting the trend.

He promises the same fast track benefits if he wins. ?Had Laloo given even nine jobs to Yadavs, I would have excused him. The jobs I gave out went to all, irrespective of caste or community.?

Laloo Prasad Yadav talks, Paswan acts. That is the core message. As railway minister, he says he had 40,000 people from the state enlisted as guards and TT inspectors.

In the interior villages of the Kosi-Ganga belt, where the dream of a pucca house remains only that, there are loud cheers when he says houses will actually be built under the Indira Awas Yojana.

There is palpable anger at the absence of any serious flood relief. Just months ago, the Kosi broke its banks covering huge expanses with water for weeks on end.

Paswan plays up his own role, and has a good word for Dr Manmohan Singh. ?The most honest man in India?, the Prime Minister sanctioned crores for relief. ?Ask if anyone got a sari, a grant, a home,? he says and the crowd erupts in cheers.

The message is especially well received in Benipur, Darbangha. The saucer-shaped field near a riverbank, with a large sprinkling of the fishing community of Malhas, erupts with applause. The candidate, too, is a Malha.

There is a positive response to a scheme for zero interest loans. Triveniganj, Madhepura, sees him build a rapport with the crowd. Rickshaw-pullers and weavers, butchers and cobblers are the ones who stand to gain. Mundane details of micro credit find receptive ears.

The rival here is a BJP candidate and he takes time to refute its claims of being the alternative to Laloo Prasad?s rule. Each sustains the other, he says, Laloo Prasad and the BJP.

Dalit Sena activists pack the dais.

This is a land not far from where the leader spent his childhood. The slogan shouting can be ecstatic. Not every meeting has such an impressive turnout of the cadre of the Dalit Sena, the backbone of his party.

His message often takes up day-to-day issues. These are areas where the sight healthcare centres are thin on the ground and hospital miles away by dirt track or boat.

In Kuramarkhand in Suphol district, the front rows of women and children in maroon, green and yellow add a touch of colour. Women nod when he talks of a health card and free check-ups for children.

There is an idealist lurking beneath the tough politician and nowhere is it as evident as when he outlines a scheme for the girl child. The idiom is rustic in simplicity. ?Every girl is a blessing, and a sister?s love outweighs brother?s.? The promise of a government bond to be redeemed at 18 years is a novel but popular idea.

What stands out is not just the unrelenting attack on the 15 years of Laloo raj. Paswan starts with Dalit issues and touches on minority concerns.

The thrust is on development, not grand projects but simple benefits. Caste militancy takes the back seat. A pragmatic, lets get to work air marks him out.

By the last of seven meetings, he is tired. The race is an uphill one. But there is little doubt this is a new factor working on the ground, one the larger players are unable to ignore.

The stakes are high. In last year?s general election, his party led in 28 segments. All but eight are among the seats that poll next week. The audience overflows in the last stop of the day, where a Muslim candidate of his party, Yunus Khan, takes on a sitting RJD MLA.

In Sinheshwar, Madhepura, the heartland of Yadav dominance, he reaches out to the sizeable Muslim chunk of his audience.

?Does Laloo even know where Godhra is, east or west?? asks Paswan, who recounts how he resigned form the Union ministry and camped in the strife-torn state for three months.

Then comes the clincher. Let Laloo Prasad release the report on the Bhagalpur riots and stop shielding the guilty. Loud cheers erupt as he urges Muslims in particular to vote for the bungalow, his party symbol.

How far he hits the NDA is the other big question. In Benipur, Madhubani, a district with a strong upper-caste presence, he is at pains to stress he is not merely a leader of Dalits.

He lists all the forward-class leaders who are in his party. Most are people known for their muscle power. Given ground realities, this may actually act as a plus in their pockets.

The day?s end, the soft winter sun streams through the copter window. Tired he is, but Paswan still acts like a man with a mission. He may or may not displace Laloo Prasad but he may affect the outcome in ways hard to predict.