Nishu Mahajan n Chandigarh
Hoping to retain power in Haryana, the Bharatiya Janata Party not only fell short of a clear majority but the Cabinet Ministers in the Manohar Lal Khattar Government also lost the ballot battle, bringing more embarrassment to the saffron party on Thursday.
While Manohar Lal Khattar himself managed to secure a comfortable victory from Karnal Assembly seat, all his cabinet colleagues except Health Minister Anil Vij and Minister of State Banwari Lal, failed to secure a win in their Assembly constituencies.
In all, eight Haryana Ministers lost the Assembly elections.
What’s more humiliating for the party is that its state chief Subhash Barala faced defeat from his Tohana assembly constituency against Devender Singh Babli of the newly-formed regional party -- Jannayak Janta Party with a huge margin of 52302 votes.
Apart from Barala, other two prominent Jat leaders including Finance Minister Capt. Abhimanyu and Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Om Parkash Dhankar suffered defeat in the assembly polls.
Captain Abhimanyu lost to Ram Kumar Gautam of the JJP in Narnaund assembly seat while OP Dhankar was defeated in his Badli constituency by Kuldeep Vats of Congress.
Ram Bilas Sharma, a prominent Brahmin leader and Education Minister lost in his Mahendergarh constituency. Rao Dan Singh, who had lost against Sharma in 2014 assembly polls, managed to secure victory against the heavyweight BJP candidate from Mahendergarh.
The BJP also lost in prestigious Rohtak assembly seat, which it had managed to win in 2014 assembly election. Minister of State for Cooperation, Manish Kumar Grover lost the Rohtak seat to Bharat Bhushan Batra of Congress by a margin of 2735 votes.
BJP’s lone woman Minister Kavita Jain, who was handling the charge of Art and Cultural Affairs, Women and Child Development Ministry, lost the election to Congress Surender Panwar from her Sonepat constituency.
Congress’ Balbir Singh defeated Transport Minister Krishan Pal Kanwar in Israna (SC), constituency by a margin of 20015 votes, Ram Karan of Jannayak Janata party won from Shahbad (SC) seat with a margin of 37127 votes against Krishan Kumar Bedi, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment and Minister of State for Food & Supplies, Karan Dev Kamboj lost the Radaur assembly seat by a margin of 2541 against Congress’ Bishan Lal.
Anil Vij is the only Cabinet Minister, who managed to secure his Ambala Cantt assembly seat with a comfortable margin against his closest rival Chitra Sarwara, an independent and Congress rebel.
Notably, two Ministers namely Rao Narbir Singh and Vipul Goel were denied tickets and fresh faces were brought in on their assembly seats. Rao Narbir Singh was the Minister of Public Works (B& R) and an MLA from Badshahpur.
This time, BJP had given ticket to Manish Yadav who lost to an independent candidate Rakesh Daultabad in Badshahpur.
In place of Industries Minister Vipul Goel from Faridabad, the BJP had shown faith in Narender Gupta, who registered a comfortable victory against Congress Lakhan Kumar Singla.
Giving a major relief to the BJP, Haryana Assembly Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar managed to secure his Jagadhri assembly seat by a margin of 16373 votes against his nearest rival Akram Khan of Congress.
5 from Chautala village make it to state legislature
Five candidates who hail from Chautala village and represent different parties registered victories in the state assembly elections. While two of them belong to the JJP, one each was from the INLD and the Congress. One candidate was elected as an independent.
Notably, Chautala is a village in Dabwali subdivision of Sirsa on the Haryana-Rajasthan border, to which former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal and ex-Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala belong.
Former CM OP Chautala’s younger son Abhay Chautala made a hattrick from his traditional Ellenabad assembly seat, beating Pawan Beniwal of the BJP and became the lone candidate of the Indian National Lok Dal to reach the State Assembly.
OP Chautala's daughter in-law Naina Chautala, his grandson Dushyant Chautala, his brother Ranjit Singh Chautala were also elected to the State Assembly.
Congress nominee Amit Sihag, who also belongs to the Devi Lal clan, defeated BJP’s Aditya, who is the grandson of Devi Lal, by a margin of 15,647 votes from Dabwali. Sihag’s father Dr KV Singh is the uncle of Ajay and Abhay Chautala
INLD decimated, members of Lal clan shine in election
Once known as the main regional player, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has been virtually wiped out in this election while its splinter group and less than 12-month-old Jannayak Janata Party (BJP) emerged a key player in the election. While INLD won one seat, JJP won 10 seats.
The Chautala clan who won the elections are Abhay Singh (Ellenabad), Dushyant (Uchana Kalan), Naina (Badhra).
The grandson of former deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal, Aditya Devi Lal, who was contesting as BJP candidate from Dabwali assembly lost the election to Amit Sihag of Congress with a margin of 15647 votes .
Devi Lal’s son Ranjit Singh Chautala, who contested as an independent candidate from Rania seat in Sirsa district won win a margin of 19431 votes against his closest rival Gobind Kanda of Haryana Lokhit Party.
Former Chief Minister Bansi Lal’s daughter in-law Kiran Choudhry won for the fourth consecutive time from the family citadel Tosham with a margin of 18059 votes. Her estranged brother-in-law Ranbir Mahendra lost to Naina Chautala in Badhra constituency. Former CM Bhajan Lal’s sons — former deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan and his younger brother Kuldeep Bishnoi were contesting from Panchkula and Adampur respectively. While Bishnoi won Adampur seat, Chander Mohan failed to make a comeback in elections.
Meanwhile, Congress Rewari candidate Chiranjeev Rao, son of former Minister Capt Ajay Yadav, won the seat by a margin of 1317 against BJP’s Sunil Kumar.