Ruling BJP on Thursday won the high-stakes Jind bypoll while the Congress won the Ramgarh Assembly seat in Rajasthan, taking its tally in the 200-member House to 100.
At Jind, BJP nominee Krishan Middha (48) wrested the seat from the main Opposition Indian National Lok Dal, forcing it to the fifth place. The Jannayak Janata Party, which broke away from the INLD just weeks ago following a feud in the Chautala family, put up a spirited fight and finished second.
The BJP candidate defeated JJP’s Digvijay Singh Chautala by 12,935 votes, Jind Deputy Commissioner-cum-Returning Officer Amit Khatri said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the people of Jind for voting for the BJP. “This is a seat where the party didn’t win earlier,” he tweeted.
The bypoll was ordered after the death of Middha’s father, INLD’s Hari Chand Middha. Out of 1,30,828 votes polled, Middha secured 50,556 against Digvijay Chautala’s 37,631. Randeep Singh Surjewal, a spokesperson for the Congress and its MLA from Kaithal in Haryana, got 22,740 votes.
At fifth place, INLD candidate Umed Singh Redhu ended up not only behind the JJP but also trailed another new outfit - the Loktantra Suraksha Party (LSP) led by BJP’s rebel MP Raj Kumar Saini.
At Ramgarh, Congress candidate Shafia Zubair won by a margin of 12,228 votes after polling 83,311 votes. Her nearest rival, BJP’s Sukhwant Singh, got 71,083 votes.
Soon after the bypoll victory, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot announced to raise the unemployment allowance for the youth of the State from March 1. “Girls will get Rs 3,500 and boys Rs 3,000 as unemployment allowance for two years,” he said at a function in the Rajasthan University here.
Gehlot said the Congress in its election manifesto had promised to raise the unemployment allowance for the youth.