Of these, Madhepura and Jhanjharpur hold special significance as they have been represented by former Chief Ministers Lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra, respectively. But in an election that so far appears to be without a “wave”, each constituency has its own dynamics and electoral arithmetic amid larger national issues that have people’s attention.Manoj Yadav, a government employee in Madhepura town, barely lifts his head from the newspaper while spelling out his voting preference — RJD. “I keep telling those voting for Modi in my office that they must remember that the pension scheme was removed under the NDA regime. Modi is privatising everything. How will the youth get jobs? If Modi returns to power, the country will go down further,” he says.In the adjacent village of Budhi, Niranjan Kumar Yadav, a 35-year-old farmer, does not feel the need to remain loyal to the RJD. “The RJD has taken Yadavs and Muslims for granted. Nobody talks of farmers and floods. Lalu Yadav used to say the king would come from the ballot box and not from the womb of the queen. Now he alone decides who will be king. He should have fielded a candidate who is an active leader,” he says.Niranjan Kumar’s anger underlines the importance of candidate selection in the constituency. In Madhepura, JD(U)’s sitting MP Dinesh Chandra Yadav is pitted against the RJD’s Chandradeep Yadav, the son of former MP Ramendra Yadav alias Ravi. While people are not ecstatic about Dinesh, who they say has barely toured the constituency or done any significant work in five years, they call Chandradeep a “political greenhorn” and an “outsider”.Dinesh Yadav belongs to a certain sub-caste of Yadavs that has more than 50,000 voters in the constituency. He also holds considerable sway in Saharsa, part of which falls in the Madhepura constituency. Barring a few exceptions, the upper castes appear to be rallying behind Modi because “wo desh ke liye kaam kar rahe hain (He is working for the betterment of the country).”Among Kurmis and Kushwahas, both Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and a large section of Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), Modi seems to have retained his popularity. Despite some sense of fatigue visible in a section of voters about Modi, the perceived absence of alternative and central schemes such as free ration and PM Awas Yojana, which locals interestingly call “Indira Awas”, appears to be helping the NDA.Then some people say they will vote based on the Ram Mandir issue. Near Supaul railway station, Shivpujan Mandal, a tea stall owner from the Dhanuk (EBC) community says, “So many people, beginning from Nehru, came to power, but none could get the temple built. It was Modi who did it. They too could have put pressure on the courts, but they did not.”Parmeshwar Mandal, a 70-year-old farmer from the Kosi belt in the region, lost his house and fields when the river changed course last year. He is still waiting for the government to resettle him but says he will vote for Modi. “I have lost everything. It is his free ration that I am surviving on. Who knows what a new government will do? So why fix what is not broken?” he says.Yadavs and Muslims in the constituency, which has JD(U)’s incumbent MP Dileshwar Kamait pitted against RJD’s Chandrahas Chaupal, appear staunchly behind the RJD though.In Jhanjharpur in Madhubani district, the equation has been made interesting by the entry of RJD rebel Gulab Yadav who is contesting on a BSP ticket. Gulab is said to have considerable personal influence in the region and may cut into the votes of both the NDA and the INDIA blocs. Here, the JD(U)’s Rampreet Mandal is up against Suman Kumar Mahaseth of Mukesh Sahani’s Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), which is part of the INDIA bloc.Given that Sahani belongs to the Mallah caste, there appears to be considerable excitement in the community, which is a significant voting bloc. Yadavs and Muslims, who make up almost 25% of the electorate in Jhanjharpur, are largely backing Mahaseth.But there are some voices of dissent too. In Bhutaha village, on the boundary of Jhanjharpur and Supaul, Sanjay Yadav feels the RJD is not exactly a viable option. “Lalu Yadav did not do any development so Yadavs have also suffered. While largely Yadav loyalties are with the RJD, some Yadavs feel Modi should be voted in the Lok Sabha and Tejashwi in the Vidhan Sabha,” he says.Musahars of Pariharpur in the Rajnagar Assembly segment appear split between the Mahagathbandhan and the NDA. The Musahar Tola in the Brahmin-dominated village is a squatter colony on government land by the side of a highway. For years, residents have been making appeals to the government to give them land to settle down, but nothing has moved.What is working in favour of INDIA is the dwindling popularity of Nitish Kumar and the lack of enthusiasm among BJP workers to mobilise voters in support of JD(U) candidates. “We are not supporting the candidate. He is a very bad candidate. We will go and vote for Modi, but won’t mobilise voters,” says a BJP worker in Jhanjharpur.