Congress tally: 22 MPs can get only 7 MLAs

The five other winning MLAs are from the Assembly segments falling within the five Lok Sabha constituencies of Ratna Singh,Sriprakash Jaiswal,Kamal Kishore,Harsh Vardhan and R P N Singh.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi may blame the presence of too many leaders in UP for the partys debacle in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections,but the results substantiate Rahul Gandhis diagnosis of the partys weak fundamentals as the culprit behind the grand old partys poor showing,despite his efforts to boost its electoral prospects.

The fact that lays bare the fundamental weakness of the party is that its 22 Lok Sabha MPs from UP contributed just seven MLAs from their constituencies to the partys tally of 28. While only two MLAs were elected from Rahuls Amethi,Sonia Gandhis Rae Bareli drew a blank.

The five other winning MLAs are from the Assembly segments falling within the five Lok Sabha constituencies of Ratna Singh,Sriprakash Jaiswal,Kamal Kishore,Harsh Vardhan and R P N Singh.

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Jaiswals Cabinet colleagues Beni Prasad Verma and Salman Khurshid contributed no winner from their areas,nor did the high-profile National Commission for Scheduled Castes chairman,P L Punia,who is a Congress MP from Barabanki.

R P N Singh is the lone Minister of State in the Central government who saw an MLA winning from his constituency.

The other two ministers of state Pradeep Jain and Jitin Prasada too have failed to get anybody elected to the Assembly from their respective areas.

No Congress candidate won from Moradabad and Firozabad either,represented by the partys two star MPs,former cricketer Azharuddin and actor Raj Babbar,respectively.

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The Congress MPs poor show is further contrasted by the fact that the BSP,which was facing a severe anti-incumbency factor that Rahul Gandhi so feverishly tried to tap,has fared better than the Congress despite a huge wave in favour of the SP. The ruling party managed to get 15 MLAs elected from the 22 Parliamentary constituencies represented by the Congress. The BJP,too,has 13 candidates winning from these 22 constituencies.

Congress MPs also have no excuse to explain as to why they were of no help to Rahul Gandhi and his project UP,as only a few of them Salman Khurshid,Beni Verma,Jagdambika Pal,Harsh Vardhan Singh,Kamal Kishore could claim to have been busy campaigning,lending support to their family members contesting as party candidates.

Incidentally,all these candidates lost.