The vote share of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell by a massive 22 per cent in the Haryana Assembly polls, the results of which were declared on Thursday.
The party secured over 58 per cent votes in the state in the Lok Sabha polls held five months ago in May and won all the 10 seats. In this Assembly polls, it got 36 per cent.
Several Ministers in the Manohar Lal Khattar-led government lost in the elections. While the BJP managed to get 40 seats this time, it had won 47 in the 2014 Haryana Assembly polls.
The vote share of the Congress, which has emerged stronger than the last polls but is behind the BJP, is almost the same as it was in the Lok Sabha polls. The party got 28.42 per cent of the total votes polled in the Lok Sabha election.
Haryana BJP President Subhash Barala and State Ministers, except two, lost the polls.
Khattar retained his Karnal seat with a comfortable margin, winning by 45,188 votes over his nearest rival Tarlochan Singh of the Congress. BJP’s outgoing Ministers Capt Abhimanyu, OP Dhankar, Ram Bilas Sharma, Kavita Jain, Krishan Lal Panwar, Manish Grover, and Krishan Kumar Bedi, all ended up with humiliating defeats.
But BJP candidate and Public Health and Engineering Minister Banwari Lal won the Bawal seat.
Also Health Minister Anil Vij retained his seat from Ambala Cantonment.