It?s the trend that matters

"Badr bhai will eat up Kalyan Singh," says a motor mechanic in Bulandshahr.

"Badr bhai will eat up Kalyan Singh," says a smiling Afzal, a motor mechanic in Bulandshahr’s Diptiganj. Badr-ul-Islam is the RLD candidate for Bulandshahr.

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Afzal’s boldness is uncharacteristic, as the Muslim community usually fights shy of disclosing its preferred candidate.

In western UP, the Muslim vote has always been decisive. Of the 18 UP constituencies going to polls on Monday, one third sent Muslims to the 13th Lok Sabha.

From Saharanpur to Meerut, Muslims are taciturn about their vote, playing guessing games with journalists, party workers and pollsters. "We are waiting for the rujhan (trend)," said 70-year-old Md Kareem in Meerut. What he means is that the Muslims will vote for the candidate who's most likely to defeat the BJP.

The indeterminate rujhan is being decided on the poll-eve by community elders, moulvis and local leaders.

In what has been a BJP victory, Muslims seem to have started suspecting both Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav.

"Both may join the BJP," said Md Khalid, a shopkeeper in Baghpat. He pines for a Congress revival. But from Bulandshahr to Baghpat, there is talk of the RLD, SP and the Congress coming to an understanding.

Meanwhile, the BJP propaganda machinery is working overtime to split the Muslim vote. But after the initial success, it appears to be on the wane.

Baraut mosque caretaker Moulvi Md Israil is angry at the Hindi press for ‘twisting’ Imam Bukhari’s fatwa to vote for the BJP. "He simply said that rather than voting for the BSP which will later sell our votes to the BJP, why not vote directly for the party," he says.

The Moulvi hints that the Muslim vote will go to the SP-RLD and the Congress, whoever is stronger.

But another factor could work in BJP’s favour: the large number of Muslim candidates put up by the BSP — which will further split the votes.

Foul play

Poll trick: Congress-backed Independent candidate from Kolkata North-West, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, is an angry man. He is enraged by an attempt by his rivals, including his namesake who is in the fray, to publish an ad claiming that he was withdrawing in favour of Trinamool nominee Subrata Mukherjee. A Rs 3 lakh ad landed at nine Kolkata-based Hindi-language papers on Friday. However, suspicious editors who called Sudip to check were told that he had issued no such ad. All newspapers declined to publish the ad.

Call this dirty politics or what?

HTC