Adampur bypoll: BJP-JJP known for a bypoll-jinx despite fielding celebrity faces

The coalition had lost both.

The November 3 Adampur bypoll shall be the third bypoll that the coalition shall be contesting.

The coalition faced its first bypoll test in Baroda constituency in November, 2020. The alliance’s celebrity candidate — an ace wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt was defeated by Congress’ rookie candidate Indu Raj Narwal by a margin of over 10,000 votes. Despite being a well-known face and a backing of both BJP and JJP, Yogeshwar Dutt got 40.7 per cent votes while Congress’ candidate who had contested his maiden election was polled over 49 per cent votes. INLD’s candidate Joginder Malik, however, failed to save his security deposit and was polled barely 5,003 votes.

The second bypoll took place in October, 2021 in Ellenabad. Abhay Chautala’s resignation in support of the farmers protesting against three central farm legislations necessitated that bypoll. The BJP-JJP alliance threw all its weight behind Haryana Lokhit Party’s MLA Gopal Kanda’s brother Gobind Kanda and declared him as it’s candidate to take on Abhay Chautala. Congress’ too fielded Pawan Beniwal, who had contested from Ellenabad earlier on BJP ticket in 2014 and 2019 and lost both times to Abhay.

Kanda brothers are extremely well-known faces in Sirsa district and enjoy a significant following in the area due to their numerous charitable works. Despite all the backing of both BJP and JJP and their own clout in the area, Gobind Kanda lost. Although with a thin margin of over 6700 votes, but Abhay Chautala managed to win Ellenabad and Gobind Kanda lost, while Congress’ Pawan Beniwal finished a distant third.

It is not that BJP or JJP did not campaign in both the earlier bypolls, but the alliance was rejected by the people both the times. This time again in Adampur, the coalition has fielded a well-known face Bhavya Bishnoi who is Haryana’s three time former chief minister Bhajan Lal’s grandson and four-time MLA from Adampur Kuldeep Bishnoi’s son.

BJP’s entire top leadership of the dtate has been assigned specific tasks to lead the campaign across length and breadth of Adampur. Entire Bishnoi family, which already enjoys a significant following in the constituency, is also campaigning extensively. JJP’s Dushyant Chautala or his brother and senior youth leader Digvijay Chautala, however, are yet to campaign for Bishnoi.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s former minister and MLA from Rohtak, Manish Grover who is camping in Adampur these days, said, “Undoubtedly, the Bharatiya Janata Party will win Adampur. The opposition parties, be it Congress or AAP or INLD are only struggling to save their security deposits. Congress leaders do not have anything to show to the people of Adampur. During Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s tenure as Chief Minister of Haryana, Adampur was completely neglected. It is only during BJP’s tenure that people of Adampur once again started seeing the developmental works. In reality, it was only Chaudhdary Devi Lal and Chaudhary Bhajan Lal who enjoyed massive following and had the ability to contest and win an election from any part of Haryana. Kuldeep Bishnoi and his son Bhavya Bishnoi are members of family of people of Adampur and the voters will definitely bless Bhavya this time with their vote”.

Indian National Lok Dal’s supremo and former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala also started campaign in favour of INLD’s candidate Kurdaram Nambardar. “Candidates of both BJP and Congress are not trustworthy. People of Adampur are wise enough and shall surely vote for Kurdaram who is son of a farmer and has always remained among the people of Adampur”, Chautala said.

Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, however, said that “BJP-JJP will meet the same fate as it had been facing in two earlier bypolls. They had lost both and shall lose the upcoming Adampur, too. People of Adampur have already made up their mind and shall vote for Congress candidate and it will be a beginning of BJP-JJP’s ouster from the State in the 2024 polls”.