Haryana has thrown a divided mandate in the 2019 elections with no clear winner and around 10 candidates of BJP and Congress secured victory in a neck-and-neck battle in the State Assembly elections.
Randeep Singh Surjewala, Congress national spokesperson and party's candidate from Kaithal seat, lost the Assembly election by a margin of 530 votes. Surjewala has been a two-time MLA from Kaithal. He had won the seat in 2014 and 2009 elections.
The BJP won Thanesar by a margin of 842 votes, and Ratia (SC) and Yamunanagar by 1,216 and 1,455 votes respectively. In all, 10 seats saw victory margins smaller than 2,000. Five of these were won by the Congress; one by Gopal Kanda of the Haryana Lokhit Party. Among the Congress victories, the closest was in Punahana in the Muslim-dominated Nuh district where Mohammad Ilyas defeated an Independent candidate by just 816 votes. The next smallest margin was in Rewari, where Chiranjeev Rao of the Congress defeated the BJP’s Sunil Kumar by 1,371 votes. Rao is Lalu Prasad’s son-in-law, and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav campaigned for the Congress candidate.
In 2014, the BJP won Rewari by a massive 45,466 votes. But sitting MLA Randhir Kapriwas was denied the ticket this time so he fought as an Independent and got 36,778 votes, ensuring Sunil Kumar’s defeat. The other seats the Congress won by narrow margins were Mulana (SC), Assandh, and Kharkhauda (SC).
The smallest victory margin in the State was at Sirsa, where Gopal Kanda defeated Independent candidate Gokul Setia by 602 votes. Sirsa was won by the INLD in 2014; this year, the party has got just one seat Ellenabad, where Abhay Chautala has won.
In Faridabad NIT seat, Neeraj Sharma of Congress won over BJP's Nagender Bhadana by a margin of around 2,000 votes.