Often tagged with the outsider's label, Rudy succumbed to the formidable Bihari mass leader Lalu Yadav in the 2004 contest. The original election was cancelled by the Election Commission after complaints of wide-scale violence and booth capturing.
"Chhapra was converted into a virtual chhavni (cantonment)) and a repoll was conducted under enhanced security," recalls a retired government teacher.
This time, Rudy, a BJP Rajya Sabha member from Bihar, feels there is a perceptible change in the mood of the people.
"It is the people of Chhapra who have decided to adopt me and it is going to be a completely different result this time," he tells rediff.com, "This change has given me enough strength to continue my crusade against Lalu Prasad Yadav. The people have lost faith in him and now want a positive leadership."
At the end of a day where he has conducted about 18 meetings, he tells the gathering that the people of the constituency want and deserve respect and honour. "I promise you that when people talk of me, they will talk about my clean image, not of any stain or a scam."
"If you elect him, you will elect a honest man, not a ghotalebaaz (scamster)," says a die-hard supporter, who is joined by another who breaks into verse, shayari, something common to every political meeting in Bihar:
Khuda ki chaandani bech dengey
Is desh ko bacha lo varna yeh desh bech dalengey
(They have sold the moonlight
Save this country, else they will sell this too).
Image: Outside a BJP campaign office in Chhapra, Bihar.
Also see: Maywati's jalwa in Laloo land | India Votes 2009
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