Bada Malehra (Madhya Pradesh), Oct. 27: This Assembly bypoll on Uma Bharti’s turf of Bundelkhand is so crucial for everyone that even Mulayam Singh Yadav has thrown himself into the campaign.

A BJP win in the October 30 vote would practically finish the “Uma factor” in Madhya Pradesh politics as Bada Malehra is considered her fief.

A Congress victory would signal that the main Opposition party is on the comeback trail following the split in BJP votes caused by Uma’s walkout.

But if the Samajwadi Party pushes the Congress to the third or fourth spot, it would mean a bleak future for the Congress also in the Uttar Pradesh part of Bundelkhand, made up of districts such as Banda, Hamirpur, Jhansi and Lalitpur.

With the Uttar Pradesh polls just months away, this has been reason enough for Mulayam and his parliamentarian son Akhilesh to keep visiting this seat bordering their state.

Their joint efforts have considerably boosted the chances of Samajwadi nominee Surendra Yadav, who had begun as a no-hoper, among an electorate dominated by the Yadavs and other backward classes.

The main battle, however, is still between the BJP, Uma’s Bharatiya Janshakti Party and the Congress. With the BJP and Bharatiya Janshakti nominees having been Congress members till the other day, the contest has a Congress-versus-Congress-versus-Congress look.

The leading contender is the BJP’s Kapoor Chand Guhara, who had been a CPI card holder before he became a Congressman. His latest switch to the BJP on October 5 has surprised and disappointed many supporters.

But with three decades of public life behind him, the man who had represented the constituency in 1980 is well-known and widely respected. For the past few years, he has been touring the villages barefoot.

“I will not put on shoes till development starts in this region,” he has been saying.

Guhara is confident that his defection would not turn voters away. “They know me well and I don’t need to explain anything,” he said.

A day after the BJP fielded Guhara, Uma won over Congresswoman Rekha Yadav, niece of local party leader Uma Yadav who had died a couple of years ago. Rekha claims the legacy of both her aunt Uma and Uma “didi” (Bharti).

The Congress has chosen Girish Shukla, a loyalist of All India Congress Committee spokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi, who is from the neighbouring Chattarpur district.

There is a buzz that Uma Bharti and Chaturvedi have a tacit understanding, built on caste equations, to ensure Guhara’s defeat.

With the stakes high, all the parties have summoned senior leaders to the final leg of the campaign.

Sushma Swaraj, Ananth Kumar, Vinod Khanna and about a dozen state ministers are camping in Bada Malehra, trying to convince voters that the BJP alone can protect the interests of the Yadavs and Lodhis.

Uma Bharti, a Lodhi herself, is urging voters to “punish” the BJP for having insulted “Bundelkhand ki beti.”