Congress received a shot in the arm after the `Muslim Card’ played by them in the bi-elections yielded fruits in form of victory of their candidate on 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 prolong illness recently.
“Public had finally taught a lesson to the Samajwadi Party government 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 on 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 3000 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 (RlD) candidate Munna Sing Chauhan, then the SP would definitely lost that seat also. He said that he was surprised that even when RlD was their partner in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and that they had also fought last elections under alliance than why the Congress had not supported Chauhan in this bi-elections.
It may be mentioned that finding little hope for the Party in the by-polls, besides to test the mood of the `Muslims’, Congress had given all the three tickets to the members of same community. While Salman Saeed was the Party nominee from Muzaffarnagar, Mavia Ali had successfully contested on Deoband seat and lastly Asad Ahmed Ansari, fought from Bikapur constituency in Faizabad.