Congress has zero clout in seats left for SP and BSP

LUCKNOW: Congress party may have announced not fielding candidates against senior Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leaders to ensure a direct battle with BJP, but the largesse shown by the party wasn’t going to be of much benefit in view of its performance on the seven seats in 2014 elections.

Even in 2009 elections, Congress performance on these seats had been dismal even though it had inked a prepoll alliance with Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal. Election Commission data confirms that Congress did not field its candidates from Mainpuri and Kannauj, both in 2009 and 2014. Mainpuri seat was won by SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav on both occasions, while Kannauj seat was won by Akhilesh Yadav in 2009 and Dimple in 2014.

In 2014, Akhilesh’s cousin Akshay Yadav won Firozabad while Congress candidate Atul Chaturvedi got 0.67% votes and lost deposit. In 2009, Akhilesh had won the seat while Rajendra Pal of Congress lost deposit. BJP candidate Satyapal Singh defeating RLD chief Ajit Singh by a margin of over 2 lakh votes in 2014 and Congress was not in the election arena as it had a tieup with RLD. I 2009, Congress and RLD had contested separately, when Ajit Singh won and Sompal of Congress came third. This time, Jayant Chaudhary is in fray from Baghpat, while Ajit will shift to Muzaffarnagar. BJP’s Sanjiv Baliyan had won the seat in 2014 while Pankaj Agarwal of Congress got 1.17% votes. In 2009, BSP’s Kadir Rana had defeated RLD’s Anuradha Chaudhary by 22,000 votes.