Rudauli or Rudauli Sharief boasts an important Sufi dargah, a flourishing sarafa (gold and silver) market and also a tradition of important poets, with Majaz leading the list. More importantly, the assembly constituency is an interesting prism to look at what a section of the much-wooed Muslim community is thinking about. And despite the fact that voters in UP, especially Muslim voters, don’t like to reveal who they are rooting for, the SP can fancy its chances.

There is another fascinating aspect to the Rudauli story. In 2002, four days before the Godhra train buring, the Sabarmati Express had been involved in almost a similar confrontation here. There was trouble between the travelling kar sevaks and some passengers who had gone to the Rudauli station to see off relatives.

However, Rudauli has put that behind it, along with the Babri Masjid row. “This is something only the big netas from all sides bring up... It’s over on the ground,” is the general refrain.

For supporter Taj Jahan, Rushdie is an ex-landlord whose large home, Irshad Manzil, has “seen the shooting of (Bollywood films) Gadar and LoC and a telly serial, Shaheen”.

The 36-year old, Lucknow-educated Syed Abbas Ali Zaidi himself laughs off any parallels with his more controversial namesake. His nickname, Zaidi says, probably has to do with where his forefathers came from. “It was a place called Rush in Iran... It slowly became Rushdie here.”

What could make Rushdie’s task harder is that all the three main candidates in the fray this time are Muslims. Only the BJP has put up a non-Muslim, Ramchandra Yadav. However, Rushdie’s supporters are optimistic. “We hope to scrape through because of the infighting within the BJP, with upper castes angry at the party putting up a backward candidate and because of the ambivalence over Uma Bharti,” they say.

At Murad Ashraf bazar, the biweekly market, Samajwadi supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav finds many supporters. The BSP, on the other hand, is criticised for the steep price rise over the past three years and for what is perceived as large-scale, centralised corruption. Says Mohammed Atiq, a former pradhan: “We are very unhappy with the BSP. It has been a disaster, with corruption to get even small jobs done having crossed all limits.”

A group of farmers laments the price they have to pay for fertilisers. Says Abdul Rehman, who also works as a driver to supplement his income: “In the season for urea, they fill up stores with DAP (diammonium phosphate) and in DAP season, with urea. Instead of Rs 200 earlier, we pay more than Rs 500...”

“People here feel that whatever they had going earlier, like a good central road, or seven state buses to various cities as this is a prosperous business centre, is gone,” sums up a local journalist, Rehan. “They feel they are discriminated against as they are not Mayawati voters.”

Residents also question Rudauli being shifted out of Barabanki district to Faizabad. “We are shifted to Faizabad whenever Mayawati comes in, it has happened twice before. This is to unsettle us. Files get lost in the transfer. Business-wise and with courts etc, it is much cheaper and comfortable to go to Barabanki... We are also culturally akin to Barabanki and Lucknow,” says a young Muslim trader.

In Neermau village of Rudauli, Zaheenullah is “soft” on the Congress, but supports Mulayam “for being with us when we needed him”. Mateen Ahmed agrees, saying while they wished they could vote for the Congress as “they don’t do jaat-paat (caste politics), but vikas (progress)”, he would take a call in the next few days as he doesn’t want his “vote wasted”.

What is clear is that anger against Mayawati has brought both the Congress and SP back in the reckoning, and that in the final sweepstakes, Mulayam may carry the day not just because of strategic voting but also the belief that he stood by the Muslim community when they needed him “just to survive”.

Atiq Mohammed adds that even the fact that the Congress is a serious contender for the Muslim vote is significant. “The faultlines are changing. It is not just about the SP and BSP as even the Congress and BJP are fighting hard... Maybe it will appear like a fragmented vote for the moment. But in the long run, it signals change.”

Rudauli past elections:

1996: Ram Dev Acharya (BJP)

2002: Syed Abbas Ali Zaidi aka Rushdie (SP)