Adampur stays with Bhajan Lal’s family, grandson Bhavya Bishnoi wins bypoll with over 16k votes

The counting began for 13 rounds Sunday at 8 am at Hisar’s Mahavir stadium for the 1,31,401 votes polled in the Adampur bypoll.

After the completion of all the rounds of counting and the victory of his son, Kuldeep thanked the people of Adampur. “It is the victory of Adampur. Once again, Adampur has won,” he said.

Right from the beginning of the counting, the Bishnoi family and BJP-JJP leadership appeared extremely confident about Bhavya Bishnoi’s victory. From the first round onwards, Bhavya Bishnoi, a candidate of the BJP and backed by the ruling party’s ally JJP in Adampur, started increasing the lead margin.

The BJP maintained a lead of 6235 votes after three out of 13 rounds of counting. By the end of three rounds, Bhavya Bishnoi got 17633 votes, Congress’ Jai Prakash 11398 votes, INLD’s Kurdaram Nambardar 740 votes, and AAP’s Satender Singh had got 380 votes.

In the first round, Bhavya Bishnoi got 6399 votes, Jai Prakash got 3567, Satender Singh got 175 and Kurdaram Nambardar got 168 votes. In the next round, Bhavya Bishnoi got 4379 votes, Jai Prakash got 5233, Satender Singh got 145 and Kurdaram Nambardar got 467 votes. In the third round, Bhavya Bishnoi got 6855 votes and Jai Prakash 2598 votes, Kurdaram Nambardar 105 votes and Satender Singh got 60 votes.

By the end of the sixth round, Bhavya Bishnoi’s lead margin increased to over 13,000, went further up by 15,000 votes by end of the seventh round and crossed over 17,000 votes by end of the ninth round. His lead margin marginally shrunk by the end of all 13 rounds, but he managed to make it through with a significant margin of over 16,000 votes.

“The people of Adampur have always blessed our family with their support. The entire constituency is my family. Today, Adampur shall celebrate Diwali once again,” Bhavya Bishnoi had said in the morning.

Bhavya Bishnoi had first contested from Hisar in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on a Congress ticket but lost the seat to the BJP’s Brijendra Singh, a bureaucrat-turned-politician and son of former Union minister Birender Singh, who had won by a record margin. Bhavya had then failed to get even one-sixth of the total votes polled and lost his security deposit.

A four-time MLA from the seat, Kuldeep had been batting for his son’s nomination for the seat for some time by saying the “people of Adampur wanted his son to contest the bypoll” and that “he had conveyed the sentiment to the party”.

Who is Bhavya Bishnoi?

The Adampur area has been the Bhajan Lal family’s bastion and it has been representing the seat for over five decades.

Bhavya Bishnoi will become the sixth member of his family to make it to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha after a massive win from the Adampur constituency. Before him, his grandfather and former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal, his wife Jasma Devi, son Kuldeep Bishnoi and daughter-in-law Renuka Bishnoi, and another son Chandermohan have been MLAs in the state.

Renuka Bishnoi had also been a two-time MLA from the Haryana Janhit Congress, a party founded by Bhajan Lal. She followed her husband Kuldeep and joined the BJP in August.

BJP leader Kuldeep Bishnoi with party candidate and son Bhavya Bishnoi flash their ink-marked fingers after casting their votes for the Adampur Assembly by-elections on Nov. 3, 2022. (PTI Photo)

Bhavya, when asked about dynasty politics, had said that “being a member of a political family will definitely give you an initial edge,” and “it was true for any profession”. “But, in a democracy, you can have such an edge only once. Then you will have to prove yourself with your work and commitment.”

Before joining active politics, Bhavya, who finished high school in Gurgaon, had lived abroad for many years. “When I was growing up, I spent time with my father, grandfather and party workers. I was exposed to the challenges faced by the people of Haryana. I went abroad when I was 18 years old. My foundation had become strong till then,” he had said. “I completed my post-graduation and came back. My objective was always to serve the people, which I am currently doing. Over the last few years, I have travelled extensively across Hisar.”

Currently enrolled in a Master’s programme in public administration from the John F Kennedy school at Harvard University, he also has a Master’s degree in Contemporary India from Oxford University’s St Antony College and a Bachelor of Science in Government and Economics from the London School of Economics (LSE).

He founded the Bhajan Global Impact Foundation, in memory of his grandfather Bhajan Lal, which has been engaged in providing free food to the needy, organising awareness seminars on mental health, personal hygiene, and environmental cleanliness.