The Congress received a shot in the arm after the ‘Muslim card’ played by them in the by-elections yielded fruits in form of victory for their candidate in the Deoband seat of Saharanpur.
The Congress candidate Mavia Ali, defeated her nearest rival Samajwadi Party candidate Meena Rana convincingly. Rana was widow of former Minister Rajendra Singh Rana, and the seat was also vacant due to his death after prolonged illness recently.
“The people has finally taught the SP Government a lesson who had blatantly used muscle, mafia elements and money power in the recently concluded panchayat polls”, asserted State president of the Congress, Nirmal Khatri while reacting on the Party’s victory in Deoband seat at Saharanpur. In a statement released here on Tuesday evening, Khatri said that the victory of the Congress is also a reflection that people had started looking back towards the oldest political outfit in the country and they were sure that in the next Assembly elections, the Party would be able to form a government once again after over two decades of exile.
Interestingly while Khatri was upbeat with the victory in Deoband, he did not make any comment on the Bikapur seat which belongs in his Parliamentary Constituency in Faizabad. The Congress candidate Asad Ahmed Ansari got less then 3,000 votes and had also lost his deposit. Khatri was also defeated there in the last Parliament elections. A senior Congress leader who earlier remained Central Minister claimed that if the party had supported Rastriya lok Dal candidate Munna Sing Chauhan, the SP would definitely lost that seat also.