Rabri Devi campaigns at Danapur on Thursday. (PTI)

Phulwaria (Gopalganj), Nov. 17: A life-size statue of Marachia Devi, Laloo Prasad Yadav’s mother, stands near the rubble of the hut where the “messiah of the poor” was born around 55 years ago.

A few yards away is a pink, double-storey building in which his elder brother Gulab Yadav, the pramukh of Phulwaria block, lives with his family. Behind Gulab’s house is a single-storey, nine-room house that Laloo Prasad built after becoming chief minister.

In a region where most villages do not have electricity, basic healthcare and proper roads, Phulwaria and Selarkala ? the ancestral villages of Laloo Prasad and Rabri Devi ? are islands of development. In the 15 years of Rashtriya Janata Dal rule, the two have emerged “model” villages.

The 3-km stretch of road between Phulwaria and Selarkala shines like graphite with vehicles running at 80 to 100 km an hour ? unthinkable in most parts of Bihar.

Phulwaria has a well-maintained, eight-bed referral hospital, a State Bank of India branch, a government high school and gobar gas plants that generate power to illuminate the huts and houses.

What, however, has not changed is the cluster of ordinary-looking huts that surrounds the marble pedestal holding the statue of Marachia Devi. The sheen of the “VIP” houses is yet to rub off on these humble dwellings.

The backwards in Phulwaria continue to be as poor as they were years ago. Still, they nurse warm memories of Marachia Devi, who died in 1990. Her son put up the statue only a year ago.

“She was a very kind-hearted and friendly woman,” recalls Munri Devi, Marachia Devi’s next-door neighbour who lives in the cluster of huts surrounding the memorial. “Marachia cracked jokes and kept us smiling most of the time.”

She says the villagers, especially the women, miss Laloo Prasad’s mother.

The railway minister’s display of devotion for his mother is not restricted to the village alone. Mirganj, the nearest bazaar, has another life-size statue of the woman.

Laloo Prasad’s reverence has jumped easily from his mother to the mother goddess. As evidence of his growing faith in the supernatural, a Durga temple, made of marble brought from Makarana, too, has come up in the village.

“We are all set to enter the new temple after it is inaugurated by Rajasaheb (Laloo Prasad),” says Ramjit Baitha, the priest of a nearby temple.

“Lalooji enjoys the blessings of goddess Durga,” says the priest. “Rajasaheb has done a great deed by getting the new temple built. We are worshipping day in and day out to ensure the return of the Laloo-Rabri raj.”

Sitting in a neighbouring village that is stuck in the lantern age, one can see electric bulbs flicker at Phulwaria’s huts and houses through the night. Development, as is evident here, is limited to the villages of the who’s who. The rest must wait till they find their own Marachias to give birth to their own Laloo Prasads.