There was a time when Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav swore by political iconoclasm. He would not suffer the dynastic culture rampant in other parties. His idols, among them Ram Manohar Lohia and Charan Singh, came from the dusty backwoods of Bharat. But India has moved on, and so has Mulayam. He has inducted son Akhilesh and his brothers into the SP power structure. And his firefighters have divested their dhotis for stardust.

For weeks now, Mulayam has been campaigning in Uttar Pradesh with filmstar Amitabh Bachchan in tow. The duo has addressed public meetings in Allahabad, Rampur, Azamgarh, Bareilly and Etawah and is due to appear in Lucknow, Kanpur and Varanasi before the assembly elections. Curiously, these events are never called campaign rallies, they're dubbed blood donation camps or felicitation programmes where the chief guest is-you guessed it-Bachchan. But once Bachchan starts to speak, you can see through the facade. "Mulayam Singhji is like my father and you should shower your love and blessings on him," is Bachchan's constant refrain, followed by an impromptu performance of one of his more memorable dance sequences. Enough to send the crowd into a frenzy.

So far, Bachchan has been careful not to directly attack the SP's rivals; nor has he openly sought votes for the party's candidates. But his presence on several platforms with SP leaders-accompanied by actor-wife Jaya-during the election campaign is sending a clear message: that he is endorsing the SP and so should his fans.

The superstar's veiled campaign for the SP has created ripples both in the Congress and the BJP. A close friend of Rajiv Gandhi and his family, Bachchan won the Lok Sabha elections from Allahabad on a Congress ticket in 1984. Congress leaders feel Bachchan has betrayed not only their party but also the Gandhi family. The BJP is unnerved too, though Chief Minister Rajnath Singh coolly shrugs off the possibility of a threat from the filmstar, saying: "Mulayam Singh is not sure of a crowd in his meetings, so he is inviting Amitabh Bachchan."

Mulayam's opponents have come up with innovative tactics of their own. A Mumbai-based TV producer says he will do a "tehelka" by releasing, before the elections, a film on the murder of SP MP Phoolan Devi. The film seems to suggest that Phoolan was killed at the behest of top leaders of her own party. Mysterious pamphlets are being distributed in Mirzapur, the constituency Phoolan represented, claiming that Mulayam got her murdered.

Some senior SP leaders are less than amused at the "non-serious" nature of Mulayam's campaigning. They feel he should have led an aggressive campaign and mobilised voters on the issues of secularism and the poor performance of the BJP-led coalition Government in the state rather than use a filmstar as a crowd-puller. "In Mulayam's socialist scheme, Amitabh Bachchan has replaced Ram Manohar Lohia and Amar Singh has taken over from Charan Singh," says veteran socialist Rajnath Sharma. It is no empty barb: party posters and pamphlets that once carried photos of Lohia and Charan Singh are now plastered with the faces of Mulayam's new-found friends.

SP strategists say that in the absence of popular and credible campaigners, it was left to Mulayam to single-handedly lead the charge. Out of power for over eight years, the rank and file of the party has stagnated. They feel that while Bachchan's presence-as indeed that of Shabana Azmi, a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha who sees nothing wrong in politicking-at Mulayam's meetings might not convert crowds into votes en bloc, it helps charge up the pre-election atmosphere and spurs the party workers to put in that extra bit. In a close contest, that may just be the difference between victory and defeat.