Haryana Assembly election results: 5 reasons why BJP couldn’t retain Panchkula constituency
After winning from Panchkula the last two times, the BJP's Gian Chand Gupta lost to the Congress's Chander Mohan Bishnoi in the Haryana Assembly election results.
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Congress candidate Chander Mohan Bishnoi (left) emerged victorious by a narrow margin of 1,976 votes against the BJP’s Gian Chand Gupta (right) in Panchkula. (Photo: X - @cmbishnoi/ @GianChandBJP)Though the BJP was set to retain power in Haryana, it lost the Panchkula constituency in the Haryana Assembly election results on Tuesday. Congress candidate Chander Mohan Bishnoi emerged victorious by a narrow margin of 1,976 votes against the BJP’s Gian Chand Gupta in Panchkula. While Bishnoi secured 67,253 votes, Gupta, who had won the seat in the past two elections, polled 65,277 votes.
Here are five reasons why Gupta lost to Bishnoi.
Severe anti-incumbency: Gupta was facing severe anti-incumbency in Panchkula. Residents alleged that the condition of Panchkula was deteriorating each day, while Gupta had not been paying attention to their demands. Whether it was bad roads, poor upkeep of parks, or power issues, voters were upset with Gupta’s performance. Residents of Trans-Ghaggar were also not in favour of Gupta, as he failed to fulfil his promise of finding a solution for the dumping ground issue from previous polls.
AAP acted as spoiler: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Prem Garg significantly impacted the outcome by securing 3,329 votes, which was close to the winning margin. Garg also attracted a substantial number of Aggarwal community votes, affecting the vote share of Gupta, who also belonged to the Aggarwal community.
Accessibility and banking solely on PM Modi: Gupta’s availability to residents was also a concern. The Opposition raised this issue during the campaign, claiming that residents had to wait for days to meet Gupta. They alleged that people had to schedule appointments several days in advance just to meet with him. Additionally, Gupta heavily relied on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and mainly highlighted the Centre’s achievements.
Divided Aggarwal votes: The Aggarwal community accounts for approximately 45 per cent of the total voter population in Panchkula. This time, the votes within the community were divided as not many were in favour of Gupta. Sources mentioned that some influential community members, who were loyal to the BJP, had even proposed fielding a new candidate due to anti-incumbency, but Gupta was chosen again.
Not much Congress infighting: Even though Bishnoi was contesting for the second time in a row from the Panchkula constituency, there was little evidence of infighting within the state-level Congress party in Panchkula. Additionally, no other prominent local Congress figures in Panchkula could have been pitted against Gupta. Many former Congress leaders later joined to support Bishnoi due to his seniority and longstanding presence in the party.
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