“Satpal Gautam, its man in Sundernagar, is a Brahmin and a retired superintending engineer, while Chaudhry Mahant Ram from Bahl is a former judge whose father was a Congress minister. Even in Mandi, BSP candidate Rajendra Mohan is the son of a former MLA,” Sharma pointed out.

It was a refrain that echoed in us to Mandi where everyone agreed that the local BSP candidate may not net a goal this time, but he would surely score in future. “The more the merrier, it makes for an exciting contest,” grinned a Namdhari shopkeeper.

The only glum faces were those of Gaurav Bansal and his workers, here from Delhi with a pile of election material still lying unsold in a shop in the main market. “We’ve never done such poor business,” he said.

BJP chief Rajnath Singh too had to make do with skipping an election rally at Shimla.