SP might pips sympathy for Pooja

From a broken women this January after the sensational assassination of BSP MLA Raju Pal, her husband for just nine days then, to a leader e...

From a broken women this January after the sensational assassination of BSP MLA Raju Pal, her husband for just nine days then, to a leader electrifying election rallies with Mayawati’s hand on her head, 25-year-old Pooja Pal’s roller-coaster ride into UP politics came to a screeching halt today as shefailed to topple Samajwadi Party’s applecart in Allahabad.

In the end, political might of Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had the better of public sympathy for the widow carrying the slain MLA’s unborn child. The closely-fought election for the Allahabad West seat did see Pooja Pal holding on to a slender lead of 600-odd votes till the 22nd round of counting. But, the jailed SP candidate Ashraf Ahmed then staged a surprising comeback and raced ahead by 13,383 votes to seal the contest after 27 rounds of counting.

For SP and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which swept all four UP seats that went to bypolls, Allahabad was a special victory. Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, in his two rallies here within a week in May, insisted that winning the seat was a point of personal prestige for him.

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Last year in October, BSP’s Raju Pal had wrested away this 15-year-old stronghold bastion of SP by defeating Ashraf Ahmed by just 5,000 votes. Fighting against the murder accused of her slain husband, Pooja could not repeat that. ‘‘ People did vote for me…I got 77,435 votes, almost 40 percent of the total votes cast. But it was not enough it seems,’’ the she said.

‘‘ Last year, we lost due to over-confidence. This year, we have showed who rules Uttar Pradesh,’’ SP’s controversial MP from Phoolpur and Ashraf’s elder brother Atiq Ahmed said.

Both Ashraf Ahmed and Atiq are charged with the January 25 murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal. Ashraf contested from behind bars.

Pooja Pal blamed the intimidating tactics adopted by SP and misuse of official machinery as reasons for her defeat.

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In the other constituencies, SP candidate Algu Prasad scraped through in Haiser Bazar. He defeated BSP’S Dashrath Prasad by a margin of 94 votes.

The SP also retained the Varanasi (North) seat when its nominee Rabia Begum humbled her nearest BJP rival Ravinder Jaiswal by 15,958 votes. The RLD wrested Khairagarh seat from BJP whose candidate fared a poor fourth and lost his security deposit. Amar Singh (RLD) defeated BSP’s Bhupendra Pal Singh by 2,900 votes to win the seat.

TDP retains Penukonda

Ananatapur: The TDP has retained the Penukonda Assembly seat in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. Its candidate, widow of the slain MLA Paritala Ravindra, P. Sunita defeated her nearest rival, B. Sriramulu of the Congress, by 18,850 votes.

The Congress had nominated Sriramulu, after refusing the ticket to Bhanumathi, the wife of a local faction leader, Suryanarayana Reddy, who is the main accused in the murder of Ravindra. —PTI

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