People here talk endlessly of Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb (the fusion of Hindu and Muslim cultures) when we coax them into commenting on the local Lok Sabha fight that has become a national attraction, because of the candidature of BJP's Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who may have set a record of receiving notices from the election authorities on the charges of breaching the model code of conduct through her controversial statements.

People of Bhopal - both Hindus and Muslims - have the same question. Why did BJP, which has been winning elections here for 30 years, field Sadhvi when it had good leaders in its rank? Seated at a tea shop, Mohammed Syed and his buddy Ram Narayan do not differ in their opinion when they abhor any attempt of creating a communal tension in the capital of Madhya Pradesh which has a considerable Muslim population. The successive poll results indicate that the principal communities are split in their political views, but they have desisted from turning it into danga-fasaad (riots).