Surya Singh Besra (centre) campaigns in Ghatshila on Monday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Ghatshila, Dec. 8: Campaigning in the narrow lanes of Parulia in Musabani block, BJP candidate from Ghatshila, Surya Singh Besra, meets two of his old friends. The three hug each other before embarking on a nostalgic journey back to their primary school days.

“Ratanlal Giri and Lal Mohan Giri are my childhood friends and I am meeting them after 45 years. I want to get back to those days, repeating the same old lines we used to do when in school,” said Besra before the trio started chanting: “Aapon ke bodo bolle, bodo nahi hoy; loke jake boro bole, boro sei hoye (Greatness is not self-assigned but bestowed by others).”

Contesting for the first time on a BJP ticket, the former MLA of Ghatshila said he was five years old when he studied at the Parulia primary school.

Pointing to the school just across the road a nostalgic Besra said: “I used to walk around 1km to attend classes. There is my house, camouflaged by the big tree.” He pointed out an old house at Chamraghutta village which is now under Bahragora constituency.

Speaking about his education and foray into politics, Besra said: “My entire education was haphazard. While I started off by studying in a Bengali-medium school, I did my matriculation from a Hindi-medium school and finally did my masters in Santhali. However, I did not study political science.”

The former legislator, however, is proud that he did not let down the people of his constituency and his name never figured in any corruption case. The crowd gathered around Besra acknowledges this and vowed to vote for him this time.

After his door-to-door campaign at Parulia, the BJP leader left for Ghatshila.

Earlier in the day, Besra visited a number of villages in Musabani block. His road show started from Musabani where he met the people and asked them to vote for him. Led by around 50 supporters, Besra also visited other villages of the block like Netra, Dungridih and Kodasole.