Rampur, Sept. 17 :     The battle for this once princely state has never been this bitter. As Begum Noor Bano, one of Uttar Pradesh?s last surviving royals, attempts to wrest back her lost fiefdom for the Congress, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has reached new lows in stooping to conquer. Taking a cue from his colleagues Pramod Mahajan and George Fernandes, Naqvi has added another blot to the smear campaign. And never mind the Prime Minister?s call for restraint. At a meeting of Lodh Rajputs late on Wednesday evening, Naqvi, who is Mahajan?s junior in the information and broadcasting ministry, took the personal attacks on Sonia a step further by calling her a ??vishkanya??. ??Vishkanyas entered the homes of rajas and maharajas, either as queens or dasis. Sonia Gandhi is a vishkanya. Ever since she has entered the home of the Gandhis, the family has been destroyed. First Sanjay Gandhi died. Rajiv Gandhi then followed suit. ?When Sanjay Gandhi?s dead body was lying at home, his wife, who is the daughter of Bharat Mata, was thrown out of the house by her mother-in-law. Sonia, her sister-in-law, was very much present and was a spectator. Then after pretending to be least interested in politics, Sonia wants to become Prime Minister. She is nothing but a foreign agent ? a modern day vishkanya sent to destroy this country,?? he thundered. As people listened in hushed ? and stunned ? silence, the minister carried on, this time with another story: a purported conversation between Sonia?s mother and a fellow passenger on a flight to India. Sonia?s mother, according to Naqvi, was coming to India to witness her daughter being sworn in as the Prime Minister after the collapse of the Vajpayee government in April. ??Sonia?s mother told the passenger,?? says Naqvi, ???these Indian dogs do not have anyone from their own country to lead them. It is only my daughter who can govern this country.??? The minister does not forget to mention his source. ??Her fellow passenger came and told me.?? Both Naqvi and Noor Bano have launched a no-holds barred attack on each other and have hurled charges of ??large-scale electoral malpractices??. As election day approaches, the town has begun resembling a fortress. The imposing Rampur fort is swarming with khaki-clad troops from the provincial armed constabulary stationed to keep Rampur?s peace. Noor Bano dismisses the build-up as a ??ploy to keep my voters away??. ?The minister and the administration scared women and children last time. They fired in the air and spread terror. That is why the polling percentage in Rampur city was only 54 against the constituency average of 65,?? she says. The begum charged her opponent with using official vehicles for campaigning. ??The minister is carrying electric poles in a truck behind his convoy and dumping them in any village that complains of no electricity. In Bilaspur, the minister wrote a letter to a junior engineer of the power department asking him to put up poles in Raipur Panjana village immediately,?? alleges Kazim Ali Khan, son of Noor Bano and the Congress MLA from Bilaspur, a part of the Rampur Lok Sabha constituency. Naqvi rubbishes the allegations. ??She is sure to lose and that?s why she is making these wild allegations. It is her goons who captured booths last time. She will try it again. The additional police force is to ensure free polls. She can?t have a free hand to do what she wants,?? he says. As allegations fly thick and fast, it?s not difficult to understand why the Rampur seat is so important for both parties. In 1998, Naqvi, a relative newcomer, caused a major upset when he defeated Noor Bano by the slender margin of 5,000 votes. For Noor Bano, much is at stake here. Her husband, the nawab of Rampur, won this seat four times and by huge margins. The BJP captured this erstwhile Congress bastion in 1991 at the peak of the Hindutva wave. The begum ? whose tea parties at the palatial family residence, Noor Mahal, are legendary ? has undergone an image change. Desperate to win back the seat, Noor Bano, who is in her sixties, has moved out of Noor Mahal and shunned her air-conditioned cars for a rickety tractor trolley to reach remote villages. Not leaving anything to chance, she has roped in filmstars Kumar Gaurav and Ayub Khan, Dilip Kumar?s nephew, to campaign for her. Naqvi operates from a dilapidated government bungalow allotted by the district magistrate. His campaign is managed by friends from Allahabad. He, too, has his tea parties, but the fare is simple and the silver cutlery is replaced by paper cups.