CURATED BY – GAURAV SINGHAL | CITYCHIEFNEWS

Saharanpur, Congress party has reached Lok Sabha after 40 years riding on the shoulders of the district's most influential political Masood family. Finally, Congress's trust on Imran Masood for 10 years has borne fruit. Through Imran Masood, who gave a tough challenge to BJP in the last two elections of Modi era, Congress has succeeded in reaching Lok Sabha for the third time and that too in a bang. Last time from Masood family, Imran Masood's uncle Qazi Rashid Masood won the Lok Sabha election on SP ticket in 2001. Now in 2024, his nephew and the country's most talked about leader Imran Masood defeated BJP's Raghav Lakhanpal Sharma by a margin of 64542 votes. Imran Masood got 547967 votes. BJP got 483425 votes, BSP's Majid Ali got 180353 votes. From the very beginning, BJP was considering the division between the two Muslim candidates as the basis of its victory. It is being said that state BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary had insisted on getting the ticket for Raghav Lakhanpal. But Raghav Lakhanpal could not live up to the trust of the BJP leadership. Congress party has won the Lok Sabha election on Saharanpur seat after 40 years. In 1984, riding on the sympathy wave arising from the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Yashpal Chaudhary defeated the then MP Rashid Masood in the election and won the Lok Sabha election. From 1951-52 to 1971, Congress always led Saharanpur. In 1952 and 1957 Ajit Prasad Jain and in 1962 and 1967 and 1971 Dalit leader Sundar Lal were elected MPs from Congress. In 1977, for the first time, Rashid Masood from the Masood clan won the Lok Sabha elections on behalf of the Janata Party. Imran Masood attributed his victory to the blessings of Allah as well as Lord Shri Ram and the support of the Rajputs. Defeated Raghav Lakhanpal Sharma attributed his defeat to the anger of the Rajputs and the division of Hindu society into castes.