As a botany professor in Ranchi College, he is used to remembering intricate details about his subject, students and administrative matters. As a scholar, he is used to a life of comparative seclusion.

Thrust into the hurly-burly of politics, Ashok Kumar Nag, JMM's debutante candidate contesting from Kanke constituency, needs to juggle a thousand details but can't afford the seclusion anymore.

As Kanke and 16 other constituencies go to vote on Tuesday, Nag knows he has to make the most of his chance.

Nag is promising his people that if he wins, he will transform Kanke into a model constituency.

Everyday, Nag meets thousands of people in campaign rallies and impromptu stopovers in his constituency.

Though Kanke Assembly seat boasts mind-boggling variety with posh urban neighbourhoods, slums, vegetable cultivation fields, renowned institutions such as Rinpas, CIP, BIT-Mesra, CMPDI, NUSRL and proposed campuses of IIM-R, IIIT and CUJ, Nag is keeping his promises simple - water, roads, electricity and drains.

On December 5, Friday, The Telegraph caught up with Nag on his campaign trail as he visited slum areas and posh localities alike that fall under his constituency.

At Tiril Basti in Kokar area, where some 8,000 people are squeezed in huts, shanties and haphazardly-built homes flanked by narrow zigzag lanes, hundreds thronged to him with problems such as lack of roads, impure drinking water and overflowing drains.

'Sir humlog ke paas peene ka pani nahin hain, kya kare. Humlog ganda pani pite hain bagal wale chapa kal se (Sir, we don't have drinking water, we make do with dirty water from a nearby tube well),' said Jitin Mahto, a daily wager.

With folded hands, Nag said: ' Hum apki sewa mein hain, aur wada karte hain ye sab suvidha awashya denge (I'm here to serve you and promise to provide all basic facilities).'

At University Colony, Bariatu, which as the name suggests, is inhabited by academics and their families, Nag was among his own kind. 'You are all educated and qualified. Please vote for development.'

Nag later inaugurated the JMM office party in Bariatu Basti. As crowds craned their necks for a better look, a domestic maid Munika Devi was heard shouting: ' Woh log wada kar ke bhul jate hain (They all promise but forget).'

Kanke's sitting BJP MLA Ram Chandra Baitha, who won two consecutive terms, has not done much. Sensing this, the party denied him a ticket, giving it to Jitu Charan Ram. But, if there is anti-incumbency sentiment towards the BJP's Baitha, there is also a definite pro-Modi leher.

'Kanke is an important constituency with renowned institutions CIP and Rinpas, green vegetables hub in Pithoria and so on. If urban areas need civic amenities, rural parts need irrigation facilities. But these problems will be addressed,' he promised.

Late in the evening, Nag visited Pithoria and Barodi villages and Kargil Chowk.

• Kanke votes on December 9