Cong gets 1 seat in Haryana, none in Himachal

The incumbent Congress in Haryana saw a near total rout in the Lok Sabha election results announced Friday, losing 9 out of all 10 seats it had won last time.

The BJP in its best ever performance in Haryana romped home to victory winning 7 seats in all.

The only saving grace for the Congress was the victory of sitting MP and Chief Minister’s son Deepinder Hooda from Rohtak.

Congress MP from Kurukshetra Naveen Jindal, who’s name figured in the controversial coal allocation deal, lost his seat.

Sitting MP and state Congress chief Ashok Tanwar also lost from his constituency Sirsa.

The saffron party’s recent alliance with the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) proved futile as the party led by Kuldeep Bishnoi lost the only two seats it contested.

The defeat of its party chief Kuldeep Bishnoi from Hisar against former CM Om Prakash Chautala’s grandson Dushyant Chautala, who contested his debut poll and won, came as major setback for the party.

Bishnoi resigned as party chief after his defeat. The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) managed to win just 2 seats, one from Hisar and the other from Sirsa.

The AAP failed to open its account in Haryana, a state which is home to Arvind Kejriwal and from where the party started its election campaign a few months ago.

Party’s chief strategists Yogendra Yadav lost from Gurgaon, a seat won by sitting MP Rao Inderjit who switched sides from the Congress shortly before elections to join the saffron party.

Punjab Kesari Group Editor Ashwani Chopra, who made an entry into politics as a saffron party candidate from Karnal, won his first election.

The results for the Congress are more damning given that Haryana witnesses assembly elections in October this year.

The BJP now hopes to consolidate its position given the near total defeat of all its opposition candidates. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, however, said the results are not a reflection on the incumbent state government and there was nothing to worry ahead of assembly elections.

But the blame game has already begun. State party chief Ashok Tanwar said the party lost because of some backstabbing from within the party and also because of the anti-incumbency against the state government.

Cong routed in Himachal

In hill state Himachal Pradesh, the BJP made a clean sweep of all four seats, leaving the Congress routed. The defeat has come as a huge embarrassment for the incumbent regime led by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

The CM’s wife, Pratibha Singh, lost her seat from Mandi constituency by over 39,000 votes.

From Kangra, BJP veteran leader Shanta Kumar won by over 1.70 lakh votes. BJP national youth president Anurag Thakur managed to comfortably retain his Hamirpur seat.

Kanta Batra, the AAP candidate and mother of Kargil war martyr Capt Vikram Batra, stood third in the race for the Hamirpur seat.

Experts say the saffron party swept the state largely because of the Modi-wave.