His supporters seemed unaware of his plan of the day. “I don’t know where he would go first. He has made some changes in his scheduled programme,” Raju Lavaniya, a member of Babbar’s core team, had told this reporter minutes before.

Babbar himself was in no mood to disclose his next destination. “Abhi kahin ja raha hun. (I am going somewhere). I would be available in Khairagarh today,” he told this reporter. After a few minutes with his supporters, Babbar sped off.

On way to his “secret” destination, his vehicle halted at several villages, where he alighted for a few minutes to accept garlands. He made it a point to touch the feet of all elderly-looking voters during these stops.

Soon he reached Akola village where, it seemed, a meeting of Jat farmers had been fixed to contradict a report that he had campaigned against Ajit Singh’s son Jayant Choudhari in Mathura constituency. Ajit Singh, an ally of the BJP, still commands a good hold over Jats.

Babbar looked pleased to see the gathering. It was time to return the gesture. He got the stage removed and sat down on the carpet, placing a colourful turban on the head of Brijendra Singh Pehalwan, a farmer in his 60s.

Meanwhile, a public address system was brought. “He alays carries this system in his vehicle,” a worker said.

Before the beginning of the meeting, he requested this reporter to go and sit in his vehicle. “This is my humble request. You saw how hyper I was in the morning. This is a family panchayat,” he said.

“A rumour has been spread that Babbar Saheb has campaigned in Mathura against Jayant,” a speaker, Raj Kumar Chahar, said, and hence this meeting in this non-descript village.

Finally, Babbar stood up and took the mike in his hand. “I do not utter a single word against those whom I respect. People are using newspapers to take advantage of the situation,” he said, alleging a conspiracy to defeat him. The meeting ended on a happy note with the farmers shouting “Raj Babbar zindabad”. But it served to show the difficulty Babbar is facing against the age-old caste barriers.

“Hamein to Mayawati ko harana hai,” Lakhpat Singh Chatat, who was introduced to this reporter as president of Jat Sabha, Agra, declared. Obviously, the identity of the candidate was secondary.

That is not Babbar’s only problem. After delimitation, his old constituency Agra is now reserved and his new constituency Fathepur Sikri has three Assembly segments — Khairagarh, Fatehabad and Baha — which were part of Firozabad before the delimitation. Only two segments — Fatehpur Sikri and Agra (Rural) — are from his old constituency.

The actor-politician is locked in a four-cornered contest with BSP’s Seema Upadhayay, SP’s Raghuraj Singh Shakya and BJP’s Raja Aridaman Singh. All three claim the caste combination favours them. Thakurs, Brahmins, Lodhs, Shakya, Dalits and Jats are the dominant communities.

If the caste arithmetic suits the BSP’s Brahmin-Dalit formula, the BJP candidate is attempting to forge a Jat-Thakur combination in the wake of his party’s alliance with Ajit Singh. The Samajwadi Party is banking on the Shakyas and the Lodhs.

Against this backdrop, Babbar is the only one who does not seem to have a defined vote bank. “But he would win the election. He gets supports from every section of the society,” Muhammed Salim, a resident of Fatehpur Sikri, said.

Raju, who sells sugarcane juice near the Fatehpur Sikri fort, has his own take. “Brother, the young voters favour Babbar. He has done some good work in Agra.”

The BSP candidate is wife of the state’s Power Minister Ramveer Upadhyay. “He started eying this constituency about a year back. He has brought power sub-stations and electricity to several villages,” said Mahesh Sharma, who is in-charge of the BSP’s office in Fatehpur Sikri.

SP’s Raghuraj Singh Shakya was elected to the Lok Sabha from Etawah last time. Ganga Ram Shakya, who was present in SP office in Fatehpur Sikri, said the SP candidate began his election campaign about a month back and is “now in a good position”.

BJP’s Raja Aridaman Singh is a leader of the Thakur community, but his problem is that “their poll percentage remains very low”.