Balwant Khosa politely whispers the word ?Muslim? into his ears. Sunil Dutt slackens his pace, stares at the cramped, garishly green, three-storeyed building to his right. His tired legs skid, the dark brown chappals, long unused to such discomfiture, whine and screech. The film star almost stumbles. A grimace tightens around his wrinkled chin as he regains his balance and brings the padayatra to a halt. It is evening in Versova, a fishermen?s colony to the north of Andheri, where a sea-smell mixed with the odour of drying fish drowns the senses. The bylanes remind one of the congested, shrunken path that leads to the Vishwanath temple in Varanasi. Here the alleys and pathways are never wider than ten feet and the procession moves in a single file. Dutt could not have possibly struck out this slum from his campaign schedule. Low caste kolis or fishermen and the Muslims are traditional Congress voters. Nanavati (name changed), a retired sex worker from Kamathipura (Mumbai version of Sonagachhi), looks on. This correspondent would have known nothing about her profession had not a jealous Savitri Bai (a self-proclaimed diehard Congress supporter from Andheri) provided her detailed curriculum vitae with a slur in her voice. Nanavati, wondering why her ?hero? has stopped, shouts ?Sunil Dutt? at the top of her voice. Savitri angrily turns her face away. A puzzled Nanavati looks around her because there is no answering cry of ?zindabad? from others in the procession. Khosa, the Congress nominee from the Andheri Assembly seat, drops back and warns Nanavati with a silent index finger that she should not speak out of turn. This evening is very important for Khosa. He has managed to bring over Dutt, the glamourous parliamentary candidate, and expects to derive the maximum mileage from it. He is not going to let these awkward, embarrassing Nanavatis hijack this opportunity to score a point or two. The BJP-Shiv Sena boys are thundering around in this constituency with their Kargil banners and pamphlets, eulogising the great Atal Behari Vajpayee. Dutt is his last hope and densely-populated Versova and its cantankerous fishermen will lap up whatever Dutt in his filmi style can offer. Khosa gropes for the portable microphone as Nanavati quietly slides back to the tail of the file and awaits her chance to shout ?Sunil Dutt zindabad? yet again. He introduces Dutt solemnly and hopes for an applause from the audience, but there is silence all around and a breeze overpowers the audience with mustier sea smell. Khosa has never been an orator and he fumbles for the right word. He makes his routine pledges which he has probably memorised. He would have gone on a little longer but the local young men, who are approaching the halted procession from another end of the now-crowded lane, let out a vociferous ?Sunil Dutt zindabad? slogan. Nanavati grabs her chance and together they drown Khosa in a sea of voices. Dutt now has the mike in his hand. He is no foreigner to this constituency. Andheri, Bandra, Ville Parle, Santa Cruz had all stood by him through three elections and sent him to Parliament from Mumbai North-West in 1984, 89 and 91. He tries to invoke the long-lost romantic in him but it is more the voice of a tired, unconvincing politician that comes through. Dutt speaks of the communal malaise in Mumbai, the distrust between communities that had exploited to the hilt by the ?fundamentalist forces?. The aged and somewhat jaded film star does not refer to Shiv Sainiks by name. And his voice lacks conviction as he dwells on this flagrant topic. It is common knowledge in Mumbai that Dutt had to fall back on Balasaheb Thackeray to have his son, Sunjay, bailed out following his arrest under Tada. Even Nanavati is fidgety. The speech degenerates into a drawl as Dutt expounds on stability, on the Indianness of his leader, Sonia Gandhi, on the regeneration of a Congress minus Sharad Pawar, on the civic maladies in Versova which were never addressed. He apologises for not having been there to share the locals? problems in 1996 and 1998 because of ?pressing family problems? (he means Sunjay?s long detention). Khosa?s long brigade of lackeys realise that their VIP visitor is not doing a sound job. The uninspiring, lacklustre speech leaves little impression and people return to their work. From a telephone booth, someone shouts at the top of his voice looking for a number in Kanpur. Haggling begins at the vegetable stall not far away. A midget, one of Khosa?s cohorts, draws this correspondent aside and insists that the congestion and the stench is all part of Versova?s lifestyle but the people here are rich. ?You?ll be surprised. Most fishermen here have four kg of gold in their homes,?? he whispers. Dutt ends his 25-minute speech. The Muslims step out of their houses. The fishermen greet him. These handshakes, these folding of hands ? they lack warmth. Dutt feels he has done a good job. Khosa looks worried. And the procession moves forward. At the Ganesh temple ahead, the brakes are applied again. The Muslims have been wooed. Now the Marathi-speaking fisher- men need to be spoken to. The portable microphone emerges from Khosa?s palm. This seat has been won twice in succession by Shiv Sena?s Madhukar Sarpotdar, a man who moved around Mumbai slums with a revolver in hand during the ?92 riots. Sarpotdar has been indicted by the Srikrishna Commission. But that is a matter of pride for a man who relishes Muslim-baiting. Sarpotdar?s campaign office in Bandra smacks of complacency. A smug Marathi youth agrees Dutt is a good candidate, better than Tushar Gandhi who was the main rival for Sarpotdar last time. But what could Dutt do to thwart Ramesh Dubey, Sharad Pawar?s Nationalist Congress Party nominee? Whatever Dubey gains is a loss for Sunil Dutt. And Sarpotdar, the office-bearer insists, will leave them far behind because of the split. In the Kamathipura red light district, where Dutt ties rakhis around the thin and shrivelled wrists of sex workers, the likes of Nanavati put their foot down. ?Who will vote for Shiv Sena. Their police harass us. Their goons harass us,? they say. An exhausted Dutt may be fading but he is not completely out in Mumbai North-West.