‘Weeding out’ seeded BSP’s defeat

Former Minister of Wakfs Shahjil Islam Ansari was sacked by Mayawati in December 2011. Ansari had won on a BSP ticket in 2007 from Bhojipura constituency of Bareilly. This time he contested on the ticket of a small outfit Ittehad-e-Millat Council from the same seat. Ansari defeated SP’s Virendra Singh Gangwar by 17,948 votes.

Former Forest Minister Fateh Bahadur was also sacked last December 30. Fateh Bahadur,MLA from Paniyara in Maharajganj district and son of former Congress CM late Vir Bahadur Singh,won from the Campierganj seat of Gorakhpur on the ticket of Nationalist Congress Party by defeating SP candidate Chinta Yadav by 8,958 votes.

Rajeshwari,who had won on a BSP ticket from Bawan reserved seat of Hardoi in 2007,contested on an SP ticket in 2012. After delimitation,Bawan was named Sandi. Rajeshwari defeated BSP’s Virendra Kumar by 6,650 votes.

Fareed Mahfooz Kidwai,who had won as a BSP candidate from Masauli seat of Barabanki in 2007,switched to SP and contested as its nominee from Kursi seat of the district. Kidwai defeated BSP candidate Meeta Gautam by 23,937 votes.

Sushil Singh contested as an independent candidate from Sakaldiha seat of Chandauli. He defeated SP candidate Prabhunarayan Yadav by 6,848 votes. In 2007,he had won as a BSP candidate from the same seat,then called Dhanapur before delimitation.

Sribhagwan Sharma had won on a BSP ticket in 2007 from Debai seat of Bulandshahr. This time he contested from the same seat as SP candidate and defeated Jan Kranti Party (Rashtravadi) candidate Rajveer Singh.

Yogesh Verma,who represented Hastinapur reserved constituency of Meerut,was suspended by the BSP in October last year. Later,he joined the Peace Party and contested as its candidate from the same seat. Verma lost by 6,641 votes by securing 40,101 votes against SP candidate Prabhu Dayal Balmiki’s 46,742 votes. BSP candidate Prashant Kumar Gautam was at fourth place with 30,692 votes.

Former higher education minister Rakesh Dhar Tripathi could not win his seat but curtailed the opportunities of the BSP. Tripathi contested on a ticket of Pragatisheel Manav Samaj Party from Handia seat of Allahabad. He had won the seat on a BSP ticket in 2007. He was sacked in January. Tripathi was defeated by SP candidate Mahesh Narayan Singh,while the BSP candidate Ram Milan Yadav finished at third place.