A story with a rocky start found an “unexpectedly” happy ending in Bihar.
It began on August 27, when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was in Darbhanga during his 14-day ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in poll-bound Bihar, at which time his party colleagues organised a motorcycle rally to neighboring Muzaffarpur, 52 km away. Mr. Gandhi’s security personnel, after having tea at the roadside Maa Durga Line Hotel in the Shahpur area near Mabbi on National Highway 27, allegedly took the four-year old Bajaj Pulsar motorcyle of Suman Saurabh, 21, the owner of the hotel. The two-wheeler was never returned, sending Mr. Saurabh on a desperate hunt for the “traceless” vehicle. “My lifeline was suddenly snapped,” Mr. Saurabh told The Hindu, recalling he knocked on every possible door but to no avail.
“I was asked to go to different places — Sitamarhi, Motihari, and Dhaka (in East Champaran district). I rented a car and had to spend about ₹25,000. I contacted several local Congress, RJD, and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party members, but received no clear response. I was very anxious. Congress leader Madan Mohan Jha suggested I file a police complaint at the local Mabbi police station, saying my motorcyle had been stolen. Finally, exhausted with running from pillar to post, I contacted some local social media persons, who highlighted the story, and it possibly came to the notice of Rahul Gandhi-ji,” Mr. Saurabh said.
Rahul Gandhi’s security personnel, after having tea at the roadside Maa Durga Line Hotel in Shahpur, allegedly took the Bajaj Pulsar motorcyle which belonged to Mr. Suman, who is also the owner of the hotel.
| Photo Credit:
Amarnath Tewary
Three days later, he received a call from Chhattisgarh Congress MLA Devendra Yadav, who was camping at a Patna hotel for the closing ceremony of Mr. Gandhi’s yatra on September 1. “He asked me to come to Patna by 7 a.m. on September 1 to take the keys of a new motorcycle from Rahul Gandhi-ji,” Mr. Saurabh said.
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Mr. Saurabh, along with his father Anil Kumar Rai and others, rented a car again, and reached Patna on time, where, at the Ambedkar statue near Patna High Court, Mr. Gandhi met him and handed over the keys to a new Bajaj Pulsar motorcycle, which he collected from a store in the Boring Road area of the State capital.
“I was thrilled as something unexpected and unprecedented had happened to me. I was getting the same new motorcycle, and that too from the leader of a political party, of Rahul Gandhi’s stature. I am thankful to Rahul Gandhi-ji for understanding my concern. The bike costs more than ₹1.5 lakh, which is a big sum for me, and I received a new bike,” he said, adding, “Only the colour of the vehicle changed. Earlier, my bike was a mix of black and blue, and this one is black and red.”
The Congress party later shared a video of the meeting on its social media handle.
“I will vote for the RJD candidate,” Mr. Saurabh said, when asked about his preference as a voter.
Mr. Saurabh clarified his family had always been RJD voters, when asked if he would vote the RJD’s sitting three-term MLA Lalit Yadav, the Mahagathbandhan candidate from the Darbhanga rural constituency, because the party’s ally, Mr. Gandhi, had secured a new motorcycle for him.
‘I have been a voter of RJD, even my family has voted for the party for long — bike or no bike!’” he said.
Mr. Saurabh belongs to the Yadav Other Backward Class (OBC) community. Yadavs comprise 14.26% of the total population in the State, according to the 2022 Bihar Caste-Based Survey Report.
He works at a Samsung showroom in the Muriya locality, about eight kilometres from the roadside eatery he opened for a rent of ₹15,000 “just few months ago” to improve his income. His father-in-law, Pritam Rai, usually supervises work at the hotel, and Mr. Saurabh stops by for a couple of hours in the morning and evening every day. His older brother is a teacher.
“We are all happy now,” he said, smiling impishly with his new vehicle, which he takes pride in driving to work, and to the hotel, where he checks the account books at the end of each day.
Darbhanga goes to the polls in the first phase of the Bihar Assembly election on November 6. The result will be declared on November 14.
Published – October 29, 2025 07:51 pm IST