Begum has many aces under her veil

“I have been espousing the cause for last 30 years as the director of social organisation Bazm-e-Khawateen. Even when people do not recognise me,they know me by my name,” she says.

“However,after 30 years of dedicated social work,I have realised that despite best of efforts,you cannot do much for the deprived section without power in hand,” says Sidrat,who angered clerics briefly when she decided to take the plunge in politics.

Working among the lower socio-economic segment and middle class among the Muslim community,Sidrat is peeved at the present political and social set-up. “While Muslim women and their issues do not form the priority of any of the political parties,clerics are also yet to rise above fatwas and purdah hypocrisy,” she says.

“Thankfully,objections from clerics died down soon and wasn’t followed by a fatwa,” says Sidrat,who is a direct descendant of famous Congress leader late Hayatullah Ansari,and has been a former student council president of Moradabad Degree College.

“Going by family history,politics is in my blood,” she says. Meeting as many voters as possible in a day,Sidrat wants to register her presence. “I am relying on my cadre strength that we have developed over 30 years.

Besides,the strategy of women asking family members to vote for me will work,” says Sidrat,the only candidate representing a Muslim women’s body.

The support extended by All India Muslim women movement and All-India Women Personal Law Board is only adding to her confidence.

“In the cats’ fight,I will end up as a monkey who runs away victorious,” says the 50-year-old Sidrat,adding that her opponents like Nafisa Ali and Rita Bahuguna Joshi may be powerful but do not have roots here.