Borrowed faces couldn’t help Congress Party save face

The three borrowed “pillars” of the Congress — Beni Prasad Verma, Ajit Singh and Rasheed Masood — did not provide much support to the party in the Uttar Pradesh polls today.

Verma was inducted in the Union Cabinet in January last year in a bid to woo the influential Kurmi community.

He influenced the party’s selection of candidates in eastern UP. Both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi ignored protests against him at party rallies.

Congress poll managers had listed 107 seats with over 20,000 Kurmi votes where Verma could swing the votes. However, Verma’s own son lost to the SP today, coming a poor third in Dariyabad Assembly segment. Verma could not win even a single seat for the Congress from his Gonda Lok Sabha constituency, where all the five Assembly segments went to the SP.

Similarly, the Congress had roped in RLD chief Ajit Singh to boost its prospects in western UP. The party hoped he would swing the Jat votes in its favour. But the RLD managed to win only nine of the 46 seats it contested, down from its earlier tally of 10 seats.

In fact, the RLD could win only two (Chhaprauli, Modi Nagar) assembly segments in Ajit Singh’s Baghpat Lok Sabha constituency, where the BSP got two (Baghpat, Baraut) seats and SP got one (Siwalkhas). The RLD also fared very poorly in Fatehpur Sikri Assembly segment.

The Congress had also won over SP Rajya Sabha MP Rasheed Masood and inducted him in the CWC just ahead of elections in a bid to improve its prospects in Saharanpur district, a BSP bastion. But, Masood has failed to deliver votes for the Congress. The BSP won four of the seven seats in Saharanpur, only one less from its earlier tally. Even Masood’s nephew lost to the BSP in Nakur. Despite Masood’s desertion, SP managed to secure one seat in Saharanpur.