RJD supporters accompany Prabhunath Singh to file nomination papers for the June 2 Maharajganj Lok Sabha bypoll seat at Chhapra on Tuesday.

If crowd size is an indicator to assess a contender’s prospect in the poll race, the Rajput strongman drew twice as much supporters than JD(U) rival PK Shahi.

RJD chief and the party’s lone star campaigner, Lalu Prasad, and Chirag Paswan, the actor-son of ailing LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, accompanied Prabhunath.

“Shahi had more high-profile ministers and leaders from the ruling NDA accompanying him on Monday. Prabhunath drew more supporters from the predominant Rajput and Yadav communities to cheer him,” said a member of the crowd.

Congress nominee Jitendra Swami’s was a relatively quiet affair with the party in-charge of Bihar affairs, Gulchain Singh Charak, and some local party leaders accompanying him. Jitendra, the son of former Maharajganj MP Umashankar Singh, told the media that he had the “natural right” to the seat till the end of the present Lok Sabha’s term as the Maharajganj voters had elected his father for five years.

“My father’s premature death prompted the by-election in Maharajganj. I appeal voters to let me carry forward my father’s work as their representative at least till the end of the current Lok Sabha term,” he said. He, however, made all these pledges to mediapersons, as there were few people to listen to him.

Electioneering in the Lok Sabha seat is likely to gather momentum with the star campaigners of the two camps — Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar — being busy for the next two days. While the RJD has its rally in Patna on Wednesday, the chief minister left for New Delhi to attend a meeting with the Planning Commission. Text by Rakesh K Singh, Telegraph picture