Pilibhit:
Even in a democracy, no representative can claim to represent all the people of her constituency, or reach everyone for votes. But do they deliberately leave out an entire section of people during a campaign?
Rasaia Khanpur may be a regular village in Pilibhit where most of the men are farmers and a lot of the educated youth are jobless. But what makes it different is the fact that it's a village with a predominant Muslim population.
Varun Gandhi has never visited the village, avoiding it even as he canvassed in surrounding majority Hindu villages. After his stint in jail, he was forced to tone down the venom, but Varun's focus remains a cocktail of religion and patriotism, which doesn't go down well here.
"He was abusing Muslims, calling us names in the neighboring village. And because of the loud speakers we could here every word he said," said one of the villagers.
The BJP said it's unfair to target Varun since the Samajwadi Party has also fielded Muslim candidates to target the Muslim vote.
In their line of fire is SP's Riaz Ahmed and the sitting MLA from here. But accusing Varun of polarisation, Ahmed doesn't ignore the Hindu vote, even though he knows he might not get too many.
"My gain is the support of the Hindu intelligentsia. The intelligentsia that was not going to vote for me, after hearing the speech will give me their votes," he said.
The leaders from both the parties await the result in Pilibhit, where riding a Hindutva wave Varun Gandhi is giving the 3.5 lakh Muslims a complete miss during his campaign.