February 23, 1998

Lucknow  Uttar Pradesh
Electorate: 14.9 lakh
Main Rival: A B Vajpayee (BJP)

The ubiquitous posters, the neon signs of a blossoming lotus, everything suggests that A.B. Vajpayee owns Lucknow. Perhaps. But if he is Goliath, the pensive figure stalking the bylanes of the old city is attempting to play David. Filmmaker Muzaffar Ali, the 57-year-old Samajwadi Party candidate, is seeking votes with the promise to revive the glory of Avadh. "If elected, I will restore Lucknow's cultural harmony, the Ganga-Jamuna tehzeeb." That's about all he promises. Empty rhetoric isn't his style. Instead he listens, almost pained by the stories he hears: "This is what politicians have done to the city in 50 years."

Everywhere he is introduced as the man who made Umrao Jaan. It brings immediate response, sometimes not necessarily the desired one. As a young man laughingly asks, "But where is Rekha?" Still Ali seems to strike a chord with the common people. Rickshaw-pullers of Nishatganj, for instance, collected Rs 267 for his election fund. At an evening rally, he talks about how a BJP minister threw him out of the Delhi-bound Lucknow Mail on December 24. "People of Avadh had driven away the Britishers, now you must unite to drive away the goondas," he urges softly.

For all his keenness, Vajpayee looms too large. "Ali is an intellectual and is highly respected but in electoral politics he can't match Vajpayee's techniques," says All-India Muslim Forum President Nehaluddin. This David, it seems, is outgunned.

-- Farzand Ahmed

Back to Carnival

Write to us | Subscriptions

© Living Media India Ltd