Azam Khan has been hauled for his comments about Muslim soldiers winning Kargil. But in the dusty village of Masuri where he made a speech saying that, his clout has just grown.

Masuri: The Election Commission might be investigating Azam Khan for his comments about Muslim faujis being the ones who won the 1999 battle of Kargil for India.

But in the village of Masuri where he made one of those fiery speeches, the Samajwadi Party chieftain is still Sher-e-Hindustan.

On election day all traces of the big rally are gone from the dusty field but Samajwadi Party flags still flutter from rooftops as well as the Chinese fast food stall. On his way back from the polling booth at the Krist Raja High School, Hafiz Fazlur Rehman thumps his fist in the air and shouts Cycle Cycle, the electoral symbol of the Samajawadi Party.

He insists Azam Khan was misunderstood.

What Khan was trying to say was Hindus should understand that Muslims are as patriotic as any other Indian says Rehman. When the battle of Kargil was won Indian Muslim soldiers shouted Allah-hu-Akbar. That’s what Khan was referring to according to him. “Muslims were killing other Muslims, sending them to jahannum because they are patriotic Indians,” says Rehman. Khan, he insists, was calling Hindus his brothers.

Well, sort of. His exact words were more double-edged.

Hum kuttey ka bachha, size chhote hai. Aap bada bhai, size bada hai. Yeh hai farak.

“But still he did call them bada bhai,” said Rehman.

The basic fact that this controversy does not alter is Azam Khan’s clout in these parts. Everyone brings up the story of communal disturbances in Masuri a year and a half ago. “They were bad. For four or five days even vegetables could not come,” says Mohammad Azad sitting on a motorbike outside a polling station in Masuri. Nisar Mohammad, a social worker remembers going to meet Azam Khan at the official guest house. “He said I personally came to find out what the situation was, how the police and security forces were acting. And I told him the forces were not harassing or abusing anyone needlessly.” He says the area's support for Azam Khan is now rock-solid. At that rally there were no slogans for Akhilesh Yadav, the chief minister. All the sloganeering was reserved for Mulayam and Azam Khan who was hailed as a "dil ka tukhra".

Mohammad Shadab sitting at the Congress poll table on the main street says he is a Congress worker but went to the Azam Khan rally. He says in these parts many vote for the Congress nationally but for Samajwadi Party for the Assembly. The SP candidate, Sudhan Rawat, a Jat he insists would hardly have drawn that kind of a crowd on his own even though he is a local. In fact, that rally was almost 100% Muslim with no Jats visible to support their man.

Shadab admits he feels Azam Khan went a bit too far in his speech. “There was no need to bring up that Kargil reference,” he says. “And he did not have to insult Imam Bukhari by calling him a Dilli ka thug. That’s the man who spots the Eid moon. He leads Musalmans in prayer.”

As a Congressman, Shadab thinks, or perhaps hopes, that will dent the SP’s vote. But in the nearby village of Dasna, Rahid, a dhobi says that rally actually increased the Samajwadi Party’s vote share. “Mark my words Congress will drop to fourth or fifth position here,” he says. Outside the polling station in Masuri, Mohammad Azad agrees. “Azam Khan was right. Imam Bukhari should stick to imam-giri and not get into needless politics.” He says he has personally recruited 24 people to vote for Samajwadi Party that day. He pats his motorbike and says “In our parts we cannot do without a cycle. And if you take the motor out of this one, you basically get a cycle. I am cycle all the way.” And Azam Khan and his fire and brimstone speeches are a part of that party loyalty.

Fazlur Rehman agrees. “From Independence to now, chamars and Muslims have given Congress their votes. The chamars now have Maywawati to champion them. For us Muslims, the one humdard (empathizer) we got was Mulayam Singh.”

His MLAs have organized for boundaries in the graveyard, recruited Urdu teachers, widened the village roads.

Rehman says he is not being starry-eyed about the Samajwadi Party. “Politicans are snakes. They all have poison in them. Mulayam Singh just has less venom for the likes of us. He stands up for us.”

For the Muslims in this village, Azam Khan’s remarks were made in a context of establishing Muslim patriotism. “His goal was to say that in that war our Muslims had full hissa,” says Haji Zafar Saheb who is organizing voters in Dasna village. “The BJP is trying to make a mudda out of it.”

The villagers complain the BJP has no grounds to act offended.

“How can the BJP talk?” says Mohammad Rashid in Masuri. “We can never forget Gujarat in 2002.” And Khan always hammers home that point as well. The Election Commission has just admonished Karnataka chief minister Siddaramiah for calling Modi a “narahantaka (mass murderer).” But Azam Khan also did that same at the rally. Khan demanded the Supreme Court should take notice of the fact that Modi is the qatil of thousands of innocents. “Who says he is not responsible for the riots of 2002?” he thundered, in his haste saying 2012 instead of 2002.

Zafar Saheb says the complaints to the Election Commission will have no impact on Azam Khan’s appeal in these parts. “In fact he will gain from it. He will be regarded as someone the BJP is targeting.”

“There is no doubt about it,” says Shadab, the Congressman. “Azam Khan is the biggest Muslim neta in these parts.”