Basti, April 25: Lamps flicker in huts early in the evening as fishing boats return to the banks of the Ghagra, about 20 km from this district headquarters, a Lok Sabha constituency in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Suddenly, a blinding flash of light from a jeep headlight illuminates the huts. A tall man escorted by gun-toting aides steps out and stands in front of Ram Lal Kashyap. The chief of this cluster of fishermen homes says: “After a long time, a man of your caste is a candidate for (the) Parliament poll. I need your help.”

The man for whom votes are being sought is Umedh Singh Kashyap, Phoolan Devi’s 44-year-old widower. Umedh, the bandit queen’s second husband, had accompanied her often during her election campaigns but it is only now that he is reaching out to her caste members, albeit with variations in speech.

Phoolan, who was a Samajwadi Party MP from Mirzapur when she was shot dead outside her Delhi house on July 25, 2001, would urge voters: “I am here to seek help from you. For the first time a woman of your caste has been made a candidate for a Parliament poll.”

Three years on, the Congress has fielded Umedh from Basti to mop up the extremely backward caste votes. Mirzapur is only 200 km from Basti, but the Congress refused to have him contest his wife’s constituency. Umedh will have to rely on Malla and Kawat fishermen votes from adjoining districts to carry him to an unlikely victory.

Phoolan’s assassin Pankaj Singh Rana, who was given a contract for killing her, may have escaped from jail and the mystery behind the murder might remain unresolved, but her caste votes in Mirzapur, carefully nurtured by the Samajwadi, remain under Mulayam Singh Yadav’s control.

Mulayam Singh used to call Phoolan his “sister”, an address the bandit queen would repeat at all poll campaigns, but the Samajwadi chief had little respect for her husband.

Samajwadi leaders regarded Umedh an outsider, unsuited to socialist ideals, and it was no surprise that he was not offered a berth in the party after his wife’s death.

Umedh whiled away his time before Jagdambika Pal, former Uttar Pradesh Congress chief inducted him into his party. Pal was keen to win back backward support for the Congress.

Umedh’s entry into the Basti fray has given the poll battle a twist.

Arjun Singh, one of brother Umedh’s key campaign men, says the BSP has never enjoyed Kewat and Malla support. But despite this, even Umedh knows that his chance of winning is remote. “If he gets just about a lakh votes, his prestige would be saved in (the) Congress,” says a local Congress member.