ELECTIONS

Most MPs rejected by voters in UP

By Abhishek Bajpai in Lucknow
May 17, 2009 18:42 IST
The Lok Sabha elections may have thrown unexpected results for political parties in Uttar Pradesh, but it was the sitting Members of Parliament from the state who received the real shock.

Of the 65 sitting MPs of various political parties, who contested from different seats in the state, as many as 45 were defeated in the elections.

Though the Samajwadi Party emerged as the single largest party in the state by securing 25 seats, including Etah from where Kalyan Singh won as an Independent, it received the biggest jolt with its 15 sitting MPs losing at the hustings.

Among them was Rashid Masood, who was re-seeking election from Saharanpur but lost to Jagdish Rana of Bahujan Samaj Party. Sitting MPs fielded by BSP like Mohd Tahir from Sultanpur, Mohd Mukeem from Domariaganj, Rizwan Zaheer from Shravasti and Kamla Rawat from Barabanki lost the elections.

Among political heavyweights who tasted defeat in this Lok Sabha election was Bharatiya Janata Party leader Santosh Gangwar, who had never lost since 1989 from Bareilly. The former minister was seeking re-election from the same seat for a record seventh time, but lost to Praveen Singh Aron of the Congress.

Though the Congress has improved its tally in the state, but a large number of its sitting MPs too lost the elections. Union Minister and Congress nominee Mahaveer Prasad, who was re-seeking election from Bansgaon, came third in his constituency.

Another Congress nominee Rajesh Mishra, who was seeking re-election from Varanasi, too was placed on the third spot. Other MPs, who contested on a Congress ticket but failed to deliver for the second time included Brijendra Singh from Aligarh, Manvendra Singh from Mathura, Saleem Sherwani from Badaun, Baleshwar Yadav from Deoria, Surendra Goel from Ghaziabad and Raj Babbar from Fatehpur Sikri.

Rashtriya Lok Dal's Anuradha Chaudhary lost from Muzaffarnagar, from where she won with a record margin of more than 3.42 lakh in last general elections.

Harsih Nagpal, who pulled an upset in Amroha seat as an Independent, lost this time.

However, the 20 MPs on whom the voters in UP reposed their faith included Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi, Union Minister Jitin Prasad, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, his son Akhilesh Yadav, who won from two seats Kannauj and Firozabad, former BJP leader Kalyan Singh, Union Minister Shri Prakash Jaiswal, Yogi Aditya Nath (BJP), Neeraj Shekhar (SP), Maneka Gandhi (BJP) and RLD chief Ajit Singh.

Abhishek Bajpai in Lucknow
Source: PTI
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