NAINITAL, SEPT 1: We are on the campaign trail of some-time Miss India, today's Mother India (``that's what they call me here''), Naina Balsavar Ahmed.At the BSP candidate's sprawling farmhouse some kilometres short of Kuccha, party workers are gearing up for yet another day on the road, while her husband, Akbar Ahmed Dumpy, himself a BSP candidate from Azamgarh, is shouting orders to pack his gun and some cartridges into the car. Balsavar, dressed in a blue Fab-India-type churidaar-Kurta, is busy dissecting the vote bank, theorising that ``if we go by statistics, we will win this election''.She counts in her chunk of the Dalit votes, then moves to the Muslim vote bank, saying ``at least half of the Muslim voters will vote for us.'' A party worker, who has just come in with a report on the villages she will campaign in, interrupts with news to the effect that ``we must do something, there is not a single Muslim there.'' The information, whatever it means, doesn't sound good going by Balsavar's reaction. She glares at him, then at us and says under her breath ``I 'll speak to you later.''She cheerfully goes on to attack her critics. ``They say I am not a resident of Nainital. How can they say that? I have a farm house here, a house in Ramgarh, a resort near Kashipur. Doesn't that make me a resident?'' More than is needed, we assure her.A while later, we're on our way to Shakifarm, our first stop. The journey is uneventful but for a group of villagers, who stop the entourage to offer their greetings. ``The last time N D Tiwari (Cong) promised to build a college and even laid a foundation stone, but nothing happened after,'' they complain. Balsavar has a solution. ``The next time Tiwariji comes asking for a vote, hang the foundation stone around his neck,'' she happily advises.In Shaktipur, a crowd of about 400 is waiting for the former Sunsilk model. It must be said that as an ex-model, Balsavar did not disappoint, even if everybody had to wait a good 45 minutes - while numerous local leaders and then Akbar Ahmed took to the stage - before she made her speech. Using her smile often to punctuate her address, she started off in Bengali and switched to Hindi with a ``bhaiyon, beheno aur mere devaron (brothers-in-law)'' invoking a smattering of laughter.As she talked of poverty and unemployment, we noticed that some of the crowd had wandered over to her car and was piercing through the tinted glass with much interest - the Mercedes Benz van, estimated to cost about Rs 40 lakh, was fully air-conditioned and boasted of a fitted-in Thomson TV set and a Sony CD system. ``Mere bechare devar beroozgaar hain,'' Balsavar lamented on the dais, as the crowd around the van grew.Speeches over, the entourage walks a little distance for a tea-break, where Balsavar, in her new role as politician has to deal with a band of new-born hanger-ons. ``Come and see the school,'' they say, ``come and see the bridge.'' Balsavar, dupatta and smile firmly in place, nods at an alarming pace. ``Tell them you'll visit again,'' Ahmed instructs her sharply in English.Time now for the team to retreat into the luxurious confines of the Benz (the air conditioning, we noticed, was switched on 10 minutes before they got into it) and move to destination no 2.``Who will you vote for?'' we ask a section of the crowd before it disperses. ``The fight is between N D Tiwari (Cong) and Balraj Passi (BJP).'' And Balsavar? ``Oh bhabiji,'' they say breaking into laughter, then adding handsomely ``yes, she's close, too''.
