And the Congress's hopes rest on the same factor that has brightened its chances elsewhere in the state: the Muslim vote. Around 21 per of the constituency's population, the Muslims here are fed up with Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samjawadi Party (SP) and are planning to vote for the Congress's Jitendra Prasada.

If they do, it would be a revival of sorts for Prasada. The former president of the state Congress and ex-AICC vice-president, Prasada's clout has been on the downslide in the party. He has also been losing his grip on Shahjahanpur, which was once his stronghold and where he is still popularly known as Baba Saheb. Prasada first contested from the seat in 1971. He won it that year, and again in 1980 and 1984. The one election he lost in the middle was during the Janata wave of1977. However, in 1989 and then 1991, he lost to Satyapal Singh Yadav of the Janata Dal, though both the contests were extremely close.

Prasada did not contest the elections in 1996 and 1998. In 1996, the Congress won the seat back, with Ram Murti Singh defeating Yadav narrowly. However, in 1998, Yadav bounced back, though on the BJP ticket, and defeated Prasada's brother Jayendra Prasada.

After eight years, on September 25, Prasada and Yadav will be again taking each other on. While Prasada is still in the Congress camp, Yadav is a BJP candidate. Ram Murti Singh is now contesting on the SP ticket, while the Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded Satyapal Maurya.

Except Prasada, the other three candidates belong to the Backward Castes. While these do comprise a significant number in the constituency, the Congress is expecting their votes to get divided with three Backward leaders in the fray. The party leader in the Vidhan Parishad, Savashakti Singh, who is campaigning for Prasada, says the latter would havefound the going tough had there be any other upper caste candidate. In the prevailing situation, he claims, the Congress would get most of the upper caste votes, plus all the Muslim and half of the Scheduled Caste votes. Singh's estimate is that Prasada would win by 50,000 votes.

Prasada is also trying to encash the anti-incumbency factor against the BJP's Kalyan Singh government, and is harping on local issues like power and drinking water shortage. As if the BJP didn't have to tackle all that, it has another problem. According to sources, party MLC Jagdish Singh and former Janata Dal MLA Devendra Pal Singh, who enjoy a hold over the Thakur community, have extended support to Prasada.