Two weeks before voting day, locals speak about what the election means to them in the shadow of a devastating flood in Saran, Bihar.
Two days before the Bihar assembly election was announced, a calamity that had never occurred before rained upon Chhapra town in the dead of night.
People were woken up by relentless rain and frightening thunderstorms.
The deluge continued furiously for 7 to 8 hours.
Chhapra, 70 kms from Patna, on the confluence of the Saryu and Ganga rivers, was drowned. The choked drainage system collapsed completely.
When the rain abated next morning, townsfolk were horrified with the scale of destruction.
The streets were swollen rivers; torrents of water rushed into people's homes, shops and fields.
Crop lay destroyed, shopkeepers' goods floated in dirty water. The damage was severe, running into crores of rupees. People used pump sets for days to throw out water -- all this happening just a week before Diwali and Chhat Puja, the state's biggest festival.
The district administration's X feed in the immediate aftermath was populated with information about poll preps, with only two posts devoted to the deluge that had turned lives upside down.
One gave out the emergency helpline number; the other a notice about all educational institutions being shut down on account of the rain.
Saran MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy and MLA C N Gupta were missing in the people's darkest hour.
Archana Masih/Rediff spoke to locals about how the calamity upended their lives and what they expect from the coming election.
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Videos Production by Rajesh Karkera/Rediff
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
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