UP Polls 2017: The election in Saharanpur belt is a high stakes battle for the Congress, and the BSP.
As Saharanpur goes to polls on Wednesday, the stakes are the highest for the Congress - its campaign spearheaded by its firebrand UP vice-president Imran Masood. The party is contesting five of the seven assembly seats in the region, where Mayawati's attempts to forge a Muslim-Dalit combination will also be put to test.
More than 40% of the people in this fertile agricultural belt, home to one of the most influential Islamic seminaries, the Darul Uloom Deoband, are Muslims. The Dalit population is around 22%. Large pockets of the Gujjar community are also there, especially in seats like Gangoh and Nakur. The latter is the seat from where Imran Masood, one of Congress' four state vice presidents, is contesting.
Mr Masood hit the headlines in 2014, when he was arrested for a hate speech against Narendra Modi, an image he wants to put behind. "Look, to say botti botti (chopping into pieces) is... the sort of language we use colloquially... I have already said I was wrong. My politics is not of hate, and people know that," Masood tells NDTV.
Not everyone is as convinced.
Muzzafarnagar is next door, points out BJP supporter Dr Gupta, and after the riots and the tenor of the speeches of the BJP leaders, Muslims were looking for more dabang (fearless) Muslim leaders. But he too concedes that "Imran has charisma and is always ready to listen to people's problems."
Mr Masood moved out of the Samajwadi Party in 2013 to join the Congress. Now seen as a favourite of party vice president Rahul Gandhi, he is reported to have influenced the choice of candidates in all seven seats. From one seat, Gangoh, he even fielded his brother Noman.
Mr Masood is ebullient about how the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance would sweep the elections under Rahul Gandhi, whom he calls the country's "most dynamic leader" and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, "the face of development".
It is this image of power, real and sometimes exaggerated, that makes Mr Masood the chief target for his rivals. His challenges come from many quarters.
Closer home, it is his uncle Rashid Masood, who has been upset that his nephew, and not his son Shadan, was being promoted within the Congress.
Mr Masood also has to assuage angry Gujjars, who accuse him of sabotaging tickets to Gujjar candidates such as Mukesh Chowdhury. "Please don't be angry with me," he tells an audience of 150 Gujjars at Mohdipur village, attempting to placate clan elders.
A short distance away, outside their huts in the poorest part of the village, a few Dalit women listen to him. But they have already made up their minds. "We only vote for the elephant," they say.
The sentiment is echoed other parts of Saharanpur.
Behat sent BSP candidates to the Lok Sabha and state assembly in the last elections. "If Mayawati gives an elephant a ticket from Behat, we will vote for it," says Gagan, an elderly shopkeeper from Alampur village.
The BSP has fielded Mohammad Iqbal, better known as Haji Iqbal, from Behat. For someone who had run into trouble with the Enforcement Directorate, it is no surprise that his wealth and the sprawling Glocal campus, an educational institute he set up, is a talking point. In his election affidavit, he had declared assets to the tune of 14 crore rupees.
"Haji Iqbal is the BSP's big leader and he's the one giving Masood sleepless nights," says Obaid, an engineer. But he is countered by colleague Sadat, who bets on Imran's popularity. The Congress nominee from the seat is Naresh Saini, but the contest in Behat has become a proxy battle between Haji Iqbal and Mr Masood.
There is another smaller, but embarrassing challenge for Mr Masood from within his own party. Saad Ali Khan, a man denied the Congress ticket is now fighting as an independent from the rural Saharanpur seat. Mr Khan, who hails from an elite family, insists he was a sure-shot winner and blames an insecure Masood of blocking his ticket.