Fearing a backlash from the Muslim community in the run-up to Lok Sabha polls, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday paid a visit to the Darul Uloom Deoband and tried to convince the clerics that his ties with former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh were only meant to forestall the BJP’s electoral prospects.

Earlier, on February 28, Yadav had to cancel a similar trip to Deoband apprehending tension among the local Muslims. Anti-SP and anti-Kalyan posters had appeared in the town then.

Emerging from his meeting with Maulana Magrubur Rahman on Wednesday, the 102-year-old rector of the Deoband, and other clerics of the Islamic seminary, Yadav sought to end the row over his newfound friendship with Kalyan, who once had claimed responsibility for the demolition of Babri Masjid. “Kalyan Singh is an old issue. You should ask relevant questions,” the former CM told the waiting reporters.

According to sources in the SP, Yadav is believed to have thrown a poser at the senior clerics at the Deoband — “Whom they want: Advani or Mulayam?”. They claimed with this, their leader had effectively capped the controversy and the clerics had assured the SP chief that nobody doubted his secular credentials.