Many Muslims, like M.K. Akhtar, an alim (teacher) at Durul Uloom Noorul Haq at Chirra Mohammadpur in Faizabad district, agree that Muslims are disenchanted with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and are inclined towards the Congress.

Political observers are somewhat surprised by this sudden shift as the Muslims had voted en masse for the SP barely one-and-a-half years ago. ``After all, Mulayam is responsible for the fundamentalism in the state. Who inflamed passions by asserting during his chief ministership that he won't allow even a bird to enter the Babri mosque? The mosque would have been razed in 1990 by kar sevaks but for thefiring ordered not by Mulayam but by a CRPF Commandant who made the District Magistrate sign the orders,'' the Haji, once a staunch Mulayam loyalist, claims.

How has the realisation dawned upon him almost 10 years after the incident? ``We knew the real story from the beginning but there was no secular alternative except Mulayam, Narasimha Rao being an RSS stooge. Sonia Gandhi's unconditional apologies for the Babri demolition during last year's elections softened us. We did not vote for the Congress last year because we wanted to wait and see whether these apologies were a gimmick or was Sonia serious,'' claims the Haji.

Haji Mahboob was one of the worst sufferers of the violence in the aftermath of the Babri demolition. His house was burnt down and he and his family were attacked. He is also a party in the court battle over the ownership of the mosque site.

Even those not affected by the riots are disenchanted with the SP chief following his refusal to support a Congress-led Government after the fallof the Vajpayee Government in April this year.

But for Mulayam Singh, the BJP-led Government would not have continued for five months after it died a natural death. Besides the elections would have been conducted under a ``secular'' Government without the BJP being in a position to influence the results, says Mohammad Sattar of Lakhimpur Kheri.

Some Muslim leaders who have so far been staunch supporters of the SP chief claim they became disenchanted with Mulayam because he took the Muslim vote for granted and began ignoring the community. ``If he was such a well-wisher of the community, why didn't he promote a single Muslim leader in his own party,'' asks social worker Ghulam Rasool.

There are a number of local factors as well which have made Muslims wary of Mulayam. In Faizabad for instance, the denial of nomination to the sitting MP, Mitrasen Yadav, by Mulayam has angered the community, which always found Mitrasen to be a friend. Besides Mulayam's own follies, the Congress propaganda of his beinghand-in-gloves with BJP leaders, especially Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, is also eroding his base among the Muslims.

But there are some Muslims who are standing by him. Of course, the community is divided with some supporting the Congress and others the BSP or the SP, admits Qutubuddin Qadri, Pesh Imam of the famous Tatshah Mosque in Faizabad. Does that mean an easy passage for the BJP in the state? ``No. The Muslims, like always, will vote en bloc,'' says Qadri, hoping for a consolidation of Muslim votes.

Interestingly, Muslim theologists too have not been able to give any direction to the community since they are themselves divided in their opinions. Maulana Abdullah Bukhari of Delhi's Jama Masjid has appealed to the Muslims not to vote for the Congress. Maulana Sajjad Nomani, a member of the political wing of Milli Council and also a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, on the other hand has told his fellow community members to vote for the candidate, irrespective of his party, who candefeat the BJP. SP leaders like Ahmad Hasan counter Nomani's claim by seeking to know the process by which the Muslims can know which candidate was in a position to defeat the BJP.

The SP has a solid vote-bank of backwards which in combination with the Muslims can defeat the BJP, argue SP leaders, adding that the Congress has neither a vote-bank nor any infrastructure. The Congress may get a section of upper caste votes but that is not enough to humble the BJP, they say.

What they forget to mention is that the stock vote-bank of the Bahujan Samaj Party is the largest: an average of one lakh Dalits per constituency. If the Muslims decide to side with the BSP, the BJP, the SP and the Congress will all face trouble.