Lucknow:
At a time when the Aam Aadmi Party has made a historic debut in Delhi elections by projecting 'clean' candidates, Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party has fielded a history-sheeter as a Lok Sabha candidate.
Atiq Ahmed, who has 43 criminal cases against him, is the party's choice for the Sultanpur Lok Sabha seat.
Today, at an event to celebrate his candidature, Mr Ahmed - sporting his twirled moustache and mafia persona - was flanked by gun-toting bodyguards.
When asked about a likely contest with the BJP's national secretary Varun Gandhi, Mr Ahmed quipped "I have more criminal cases that his age."
A former Lok Sabha MP, Mr Ahmed was arrested in 2008 for his role in the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal. He is now out on bail and reportedly desperate to make a political comeback.
Meanwhile, Mayawati's BSP too has fielded a local mafia in Sultanpur - Pawan Pandey - who has more than 30 criminal cases against his name.
The Samajwadi Party seems to be adopting a bizarre strategy for the Lok Sabha polls - the bigger the criminal, the better his chances of winning.
A hard to defend logic for some, but Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav defended his party, the SP, by hard selling his party's music video which has been sung to the Billy Joel hit "We didn't start the fire."
"We have made a music video for out Lok Sabha campaign. It is a nice music video," the chief minister said. He later on supplemented his response with a casual "we will act against those who are guilty" remark.
In 2012, Akhilesh Yadav showed he was serious about acting against the guilty by stopping another criminal politician DP Yadav from entering his party. But by choosing to field Atiq Ahmed who openly brags about his criminal record, the young Yadav's pledge to clean up his party looks more like mere lip service with every passing day.