LUCKNOW: The number two position in two seats of Kanpur region was the only solace for the Congress amid a dismal show in the just-concluded state byelections in the state for seven seats. This was the first major election since Priyanka Gandhi was given the charge of the entire state as the national general secretary and the party lost deposits in the remaining four seats it contested. The nomination of its candidate had been rejected on technical grounds in Tundla.
Congress candidates, Aarti Bajpai and Kripa Shankar, finished second in Bangarmau and Ghatampur respectively, thus outshining the regional satraps Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party.
Third generation Congress member Arti Bajpai is the daughter of five-time Bangarmau former MLA late Gopinath Dixit. She secured nearly 23% votes to pip SP's Suresh Pal, who managed 20.3% and BSP's Mahesh Prasad, who was a distant fourth with a total 11% votes.
It was a marked improvement on Aarti's own performance as well. In 2007, when she contested on the Congress ticket, she secured 13,000 votes while in 2012 when she contested as an Independent candidate, she got 17,000. In 2017, this went to Samajwadi Party when Congress was in alliance with it.
Aarti’s selection gofor the seat is said to be one of the reasons former Unnao MP Annu Tandon quit Congress to join SP. However, her presence didn't seem to benefit Pal much.
In Ghatampur, Congress's Kripa Shankar managed to secure over 36,000 or 23% votes. It was 2% more than the third-placed BSP's candidate on the reserved seat.
On the remaining four seats, Congress candidate Sushil Chaudhary finished fourth in Bulandshahr. In fact, the candidate of dalit leader Chandra Shekar Azad's Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) bagged more votes (6.7%) than the Congress candidate (5.1%).
In Deoria, Congress's Mukund Bhaskar, who was at the centre of a controversy after a fellow party worker accused him of assaulting her, finished fifth, securing just 2% votes. Independent candidate Ajay Pratap Singh alias Pintu Singh, the son of late BJP MLA Janmejay Singh, got six times more votes than Bhaskar.
On the Malhani seat, Congress candidate Rajesh Mishra – who got 1.3% votes -- lost his deposit, too. Likewise, Kamlesh Singh got just 2.2% votes in Naugawan Sadat to finish the dismal story.
The results gave UPCC chief Ajay Kumar Lallu's detractors a chance to attack him and they took to social media to question his competence and selection. When contacted, Lallu said: “We may not have won any seat but our performance has improved. We will continue to work hard and raise public issues.”