In the remote constituency in UP’s Jaunpur, as Malti, the BJP candidate, goes about seeking sympathy, support and votes, she narrates a story.

It was 1996. On January 24, her husband Kailash Dubey, then president of Jaunpur block development committee, and his associates Raj Kumar Singh and Banke Lal Tiwari went to the crowded Jaunpur market. They never came back.

They were shot dead, allegedly by Alam Singh and his father Gajranj Singh — the appeal against their death sentences is pending in the High Court — who were allegedly sent by gangster Prem Prakash Singh alias Munna Bajrangi. Bajrangi was arrested and later given bail. He jumped his bail.

Bajrangi was again arrested in 2009 — by then his name had figured in several other cases of murder, including that of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai in 2005 — and is now in Tihar jail.

Bajrangi is Malti’s sowrn enemy. Recently allowed by a Delhi court to contest the UP election from jail and fielded by Apna Dal, he is also her opponent in Mariyahu.

Malti is out to nip Bajrangi’s political ambitions in the bud. “I am asking people to help me in my fight against Munna Bajrangi,” says Malti, 50. “We are taking all care because our rival is not a politician but a dreaded gangster.”

Malti is especially counting on women voters in her second attempt at the ballot — she contested as an Independent in 1996 but lost by 5,000 votes. She later joined the BSP but left for the BJP about a month ago after she was denied a ticket.