Mahoba (Uttar Pradesh), April 8: Hers used to be the song of life. It still is, but now she is hitting a political high note.

Cheeraiya Prajapati (in picture) begins her speeches as a Samajwadi Party candidate from Maudaha, 40 km from here, with a song. Much of it is about the struggle of backward castes in a patriarchal society where newborns are discarded and incidents of sati are still common.

“My blood boils in anger when I am told about these practices. But what can a lone woman like me do?” she asks.

But the 42-year-old Bundelkhandi folk singer may have just got closer to making a change. Regaling audiences at Mulayam Singh Yadav rallies for the past four years, her big chance at stepping on a larger stage came when she was offered a ticket. “I just couldn’t refuse it,” says Prajapati.

From being a sought-after entertainer at local functions with her own troupe, she plunged headlong into the rough and tumble of the heartland’s crime-riddled politics.

But there are no fears for the crooner, who is one of the two women the Samajwadi Party fielded in the 62 seats that went to polls in the first phase yesterday. Mulayam’s “woman of rare courage and grit” is fighting the criminal-politician nexus with her own weapon — songs. Elsewhere, her party is under fire for harbouring criminals.

“What can I say? Whenever I try to make a political point, she answers with songs. I wish her good luck,” says her Bahujan Samaj Party rival Badsha Singh, an upper-caste leader with deep pockets and a history of crime.

At one village, around 200 men and women wait for her. Once she arrives, she starts with a song. The morning crowd is only too happy to hear, but not the Election Commission, which hasn’t allowed her to use instruments. Even a mike isn’t permitted. Undaunted, she carries on, her throaty renditions rising over the hubbub.