Chandausi, Uttar Pradesh:
In the Uttar Pradesh polls, as the big national parties woo the backward Muslims and the Dalits, looking to play spoiler is the Peace Party with its unique formula for the backward vote.
In Chandausi, a Scheduled Caste reserved constituency, the Peace Party's candidate is Sarvesh - a Dalit Hindu - who also became Shabnam after her marriage to Shauqin Ahmed 15 years ago.
"I will get the Scheduled Caste votes as I am in that category and because my husband is a Muslim, I will get the support of Muslims as well," said Mrs Sarvesh.
This approach is natural social engineering at its best and fits in perfectly with the Peace Party's larger scheme of garnering Muslim support with giving tickets to Hindus based on a caste calculus.
Launched in 2008 by Dr Ayub, a wealthy doctor from Gorakhpur, the party has shown staying power, contesting over 230 seats this time.
In Tanda, Peace Party's candidate Pahlad Maurya was wooed away from the BSP. He has a strong support base, especially among the Mauryas - the dominant backward caste in the constituency. The other large block of voters here are the Ansaris weavers. The party hopes they will remember that Dr Ayub is himself an Ansari.
"Earlier, the Dalit votes were with the BSP and though the Muslims were with Samajwadi Party, the winner was always the BSP candidate. Now, the Peace Party is trying to take both the Hindu Dalits and the Muslims, so I think they will be the strongest," said a resident of Tanda.
For the upcoming polls, both the Congress and the Samajwadi Party have taken their chase for the Muslim vote to a largely neglected vote bank, the backward Muslims.
Dr Ayub's strategy is to promise Dalit reservations for Muslims - project the party as a Muslim Bahujan Samaj Party. This has helped them woo men like Dr Aziz, who heads a large network of societies which works to improve conditions for the Faqir caste, also called Shah-Alvi.
However, political analysts in Lucknow, say Dr Ayub is no Nitish Kumar, the Party has no real cadre, vision or relevance.
"They are willing to give criminals votes and win at any cost. What the Peace Party will do is cut the votes of the dominant party in the lead. So, if the Samajwadi Party is leading or the BSP or Congress - the secular parties - the Peace party will eat into his vote-share," said Zaheer Mustafa, a political scandal.