The official nominees are no pushovers. The Congress has fielded Rajkumari Ratna Singh, daughter of former foreign minister and Raja of Kalakankar Dinesh Singh. The BJP nominee is the Raja of Pratapgarh, Abhay Pratap Singh, who was once Ratna's benefactor. The Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidates also figure among the 19 in the fray, but they are non-entities.

However, the real battle is not between Ratna and Abhay Pratap. As anyone in Pratapgarh will tell you, the contest is actually between Congress Legislature Party leader Pramod Tewari, who represents the Rampur Khas assembly segment of the seat and is backing Ratna Singh, and Raja Bhaiyya, MLA from Pratapgarh's Kunda segment who is backing AbhayPratap or Bade Raja, as he is popularly known.

Talking to The Indian Express, Raja Bhaiyya says he would quit politics if Abhay Pratap is defeated. The minister adds that he would ensure that the Bade Raja won by more than one lakh votes, pointing out that an important thing in favour of the BJP nominee is that unlike others, he is a local candidate. While the Congress nominee belongs to Rajasthan, the SP's is from Machchalishahr and the BSP's from Allahabad. Abhay Pratap, incidentally, had fought unsuccessfully from Pratapgarh last time and later defected to the BJP.

Now, he has Raja Bhaiyya behind him. Raja Bhaiyya, who has a running feud with Tewari, has challenged the CLP leader to quit politics if Ratna Singh is defeated. In the election meetings, both Raja Bhaiyya and Tewari target each other more than their respective parties. Tewari, the ``Raja'' of Rampur Khas, has both money and muscle power, and is the only person who has been challenging Raja Bhaiyya since his entry into active politics.Tewari is popular among not only Brahmins but Muslims and backward communities as well.

But Raja Bhaiyya is a force to reckon with as well, particularly in his Kunda constituency. This was evident last week at an election rally in Pratapgarh. Though state BJP president Rajnath Singh was the chief guest, the crowd's slogans were only ``Raja Bhaiyya amar rahein'' and ``Raja Bhaiyya zindabad''.

The Congress is convinced this ``influence'' flows out of the barrel of the gun. A PTI report says Tewari has charged Raja Bhaiyya with ``intimidation tactics'' and alleged that ministers and musclemen are terrorising voters. A dozen fax messages have been sent by the party to the Election Commission, perhaps in the hope that Raja Bhaiyya's entry into Pratapgarh would be banned during the polls like in 1998. Last year's elections had been marked by reports of booth-capturing and now, of 1,412 booths, 342 have been designated hyper-sensitive and 223 sensitive.

Till last year, incidentally, Pratapgarh had been astronghold of the Congress. Only in 1962 and 1977 (after the Emergency) had the party lost this seat. But in 1998, BJP candidate Ram Vilas Vedanti, supported by Raja Bhaiyya, defeated Ratna Singh of the Congress by more than 60,000 votes. Before that, in 1996, Ratna had won the seat, defeating Bhola Singh of the Janata Dal.

Now, Pratapgarh is a virtual BJP territory. The constituency comprises five Assembly segments Kunda, Bihar, Rampur Khas, Gadwara and Pratapgarh Sadar. In the last polls, Kunda was won by Raja Bhaiyya, standing as an Independent; Bihar by another Independent, Ramnath Saroj; Rampur by Tiwari; Pratapgarh by C.N. Singh of the SP; and Gadwara by JD-R candidate Raja Ram Pandey. All these Independents and the JD-R MLA are now supporting the BJP-led government in the state.

However, Tewari has not lost hope. According to him, the Congress could still win the seat if the polling remained ``fair''.