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The decision of the Congress to keep away from Monday's election to the lone Legislative Council [Vidhan Parishad] seat in Uttar Pradesh has drawn flak from all quarters.
Congressmen created a commotion at the party's state headquarters in Lucknow in the presence of senior leader Subodh Kant Sahay, who had flown in from Delhi to take stock of the situation.
They held All India Congress Committee treasurer Motilal Vora and UP Congress Legislature Party leader Pramod Tiwari responsible for the victory of Munna Singh, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader and combined nominee of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition.
The defeated candidate, Yashwant Singh, echoed the sentiments at a press conference in Lucknow on Wednesday.
Yashwant Singh, who entered the contest as an independent and gave several sleepless nights to the ruling coalition, blamed the Congress for his defeat by a small margin of 11 votes.
"Both Vora and Tiwari even went to the extent of misleading Congress president Sonia Gandhi about my candidature," he said.
Regarding Tiwari's claim that he had not met him before the election, Yashwant Singh said, "That is a blatant lie because I met Mr Pramod Tiwari three times.
"I am confident that if Pramod Tiwari had not misguided the Congress leadership and not prevented his partymen from voting, a large number of Congress MLAs would have voted for me, thereby giving a blow to the ruling coalition."
Yashwant Singh, who had contested the assembly election on a Lok Jan Shakti ticket, accused Tiwari of colluding with BJP leader Lalji Tandon.
"Everyone had witnessed the bonhomie between Tiwari and Tandon to ensure the victory of Tiwari's protégé Akhilesh Das in last week's Rajya Sabha biennial election, in which there was blatant play of money. So there is a reason to believe that money had once again exchanged hands to keep the Congress away from the poll," he said.
He also described as false Tiwari's argument that since he was sponsored by the Samajwadi Party and enjoyed close proximity to BJP leader and former chief minister Rajnath Singh, he deserved to be kept at bay.
Coming back to the Rajya Sabha election, he said, "Congressmen like Tiwari saw nothing wrong in the party's support to Delhi-based hotelier Lalit Suri, who was, in fact, a nominee of the Samajwadi Party and had enlisted support of the BJP-BSP combine. And they hold out that stupid argument against me!"
"That clearly shows what all was going on behind the scenes... the likes of Tiwari did not see the possibility of any pecuniary gain from me, so they came out with such alibis," he added.
He also termed Tiwari's demand for dismissal of the Mayawati government as only a "façade". "If Tiwari really wanted to pull down the government he would not have prevented the defeat of the ruling coalition nominee, after which Governor Vishnukant Shastri would have been in no position to turn a deaf ear to the opposition's demand for a trial of strength on the floor of the assembly.
"If the governor now turns down our demand, we would have no option but to parade the MLAs seeking removal of the Mayawati government not only before Lucknow's Raj Bhawan but also before the President in New Delhi."
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