India's ruling party says crime is down. Muslims say they've never felt less safe

LUCKNOW, India – Five years ago, prospective landlords in Mumbai recoiled when Kajal Singh told them where she was from.

Singh grew up in Meerut, a city in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. Both her hometown and home state had a reputation for crime. They're where the gangsters are from in Bollywood movies.

So when Singh moved to Mumbai for a job with an airline, she had trouble renting an apartment. No one would trust a tenant from her state, she found.

"I started telling them I'm from a different place, not U.P. I used to lie!" she admits, laughing.

Five years later, in a visit to friends in Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow, she finds a different situation. She and her friends are able to socialize at a roadside tea stall at night — something Singh, 23, says she would not have felt safe doing before.

"But now things have changed," she says. "Now I can proudly say I'm from U.P. Now we are feeling safe."

A dramatic drop in crime is part of what-- one of five Indian states voting this month.