Raj Babbar and many other Congress candidates lose deposits in UP

AGRA: Of the 22 candidates fielded by Congress in Western Uttar Pradesh, 21 of them, including its state president, Raj Babbar and former minister of external affairs, Salman Khurshid have lost their security deposits in the Modi wave that swept the country in general and UP in particular.
Congress’s only candidate, Imran Masood from Saharanpur constituency, who secured 16.81 percent vote share, was able to save his security deposit. As per ECI guidelines, a candidate loses his/her deposit if he/she fails to win at least 1/6th (16.66%) of the total votes polled in the constituency. Candidates contesting are required to submit a security deposit of Rs 25,000.
The Congress had fielded 21 candidates on the 28 seats that fall in Western UP. Under it’s unwritten quid pro quo understanding with the SP-BSP-RLD alliance, the Congress had not fielded candidates on four seats of which were contested by the bigwigs of the Mahagathbandhan. These included Muzaffarnagar, which was contested by RLD chief, Ajit Singh, Baghpat, represented by Ajit’s son, Jayant Chaudhary, Mainpuri, contested by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Firozabad, where MSY’s nephew, Akshay Yadav, was in fray.
The two remaining seats in the region, Pilibhit and Etah, were contested by Congress’s backed candidates, an independent and one from Jan Aadhikar Party. Incidentally these two candidates too lost their deposits.
Besides Babbar and Khurshid, Congress candidates from Agra, Mathura, Aligarh, Hathras, Bareilly, Badaun, Aonla, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Bulandshahar, Gautam Budh Nagar, Moradabad, Sambhal, Bijnor, Nagina, Amroha, Rampur, and Kairana lost their security deposits.
Raj Babbar lost his security deposit narrowly in Fatehpur Sikri as he polled 16.56% votes (1.72 lakh) against the mandatory 16.66%. Babbar was defeated by BJP’s Raj Kumar Chahar, who secured 6.67 lakh votes.
Salman Khurshid managed only 5.51% votes (55,258) votes against BJP’s Mukesh Rajput, who secured 5.69 lakh votes in Farrukhabad constituency.
UP Congress spokesperson, Rajiv Bakshi, said that something terribly went wrong with the results. “We accept the verdict of people and will work much harder for the next polls”.
Bakshi told TOI that Raj Babbar sent his resignation to Congress president Rahul Gandhi. He said the party’s state president has taken full responsibility of defeat.
Earlier in the day, Raj Babbar, tweeted, “the results are depressing for the Uttar Pradesh Congress. I find myself guilty of not discharging my responsibility in a proper manner. I will meet the leadership and apprise it of my views. Congratulations to the winners for winning the confidence of the people”.
Of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress managed to win only the Rae Bareli seat contested by Sonia Gandhi. The BJP and its ally Apna Dal(S) won 64 seats, while the SP-BSP alliance won 15 seats together.