A visit last week to the constituency, one of two she is contesting in western UP, showed that only the large Jatav community and a few backward castes were rallying to her support and that the BJP activists in the area, confident of consolidated upper caste support and that of many backward communities, were buoyant.
Many of the Muslims, who could have tilted the balance, seemed to be rooting for the Congress(T)'s candidate, who represents the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led United Front in this constituency. Holding that the BSP had alienated various communities, particularly Muslims, through its choice of candidates in the district, Mohammed Ismael of the area went to the extent of predicting that Mayawati would emerge third in the contest for the Bilsi seat.
Radhey Shyam Maurya, a village pradhan of the area, was busy till after dark coordinating the campaign for Mayawati in his village. But even he only claimed the support of about 20 per cent of castes other than the Jatavs, almost all of whom he said were backing her.
He said hopefully that the BSP's campaigners were trying to persuade the Vaishyas and other such communities to switch their support to Mayawati, but even his smile seemed forced.
