Indian eunuchs hit the campaign trail

Payal (R) takes to the streets to meet voters

(CNN) -- "Vote Bangle" is not your usual election cry, but then again a six-foot-tall motorbike-riding sari-clad eunuch is not your usual political candidate.

And Payal -- who says she was born a hermaphrodite -- is just one of 18 of what in India are known as "the third sex" to put her name forward in the Uttar Pradesh state poll.

The bangle is her chosen electoral symbol -- required in a country with literacy problems -- and indeed she wears some on the campaign trail, along with a jeweled nose stud, red lipstick which matches the garlands around her neck, and a black leather jacket to top it off.

"People know we don't have husbands, wives, families and they know that we'll work for the benefit of the public," says Payal who is running for a seat in the state capital Lucknow.

Such sentiments must be appealing to at least some of the electorate with eunuchs becoming a growing force in the Indian political scene.

Two years ago in Madhya Pradesh, Shabnam Mausi became the first eunuch elected to a state legislature. There are also a number of "third sex" mayors and civic leaders in northern cities.

Corrupt free

VIDEO India's eunuchs are breaking traditions of silence and running for office. CNN's Suhasini Haidar reports. Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)    CNN.com Asia More news from our Asia edition

One of their major platforms has been corruption. They argue that since eunuchs are without families clamoring for favors or inheritances to build for future generations, they will not be corrupt.

That and their status as a somewhat reviled minority meaning they can understand the concerns of the downtrodden.

"I am fighting this election because today's leaders have become more corrupt, these days they are not even sparing the poorest of the poor," says Payal, who fields mobile telephone calls under her long fringe during interviews. "They are robbing them."

No one else -- man or woman -- has the guts for the fight, she says.

Campaigning in the local bazaar Payal is accompanied by a squad of dancing eunuchs in colorful saris and rather more earnest flag-waving men from the Nationalist Communist Party she is standing on behalf of.

Fruit seller S.P. Kashyap hands out bananas to her entourage and says she has definitely got his vote.

"She is a new person -- a human being -- and should be given a chance. Everybody else seems to have had a chance and now it is her turn," he says.

Auspicious

Bangle-clad supporters of Payal dance in the streets

Politics in the country's largest state, currently led by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and smaller allies, is well known for its infighting, coalition splits and large scale party hopping.

Does Kashyap have any problems voting for a eunuch, often a group linked in the public imagination more with prostitution than politics?

No, he says emphatically.

Those among the 99 million voters also get to choose from Bollywood stars, alleged gangsters and local royalty who are among more than 5000 candidates competing for around 400 seats.

Altogether there are believed to be over half a million eunuchs in India -- most castrated males.

They mainly live together in small communities and earn money by appearing at weddings and the homes of newborn infants (often uninvited) where there presence is deemed auspicious.