The bypoll results in Haryana turned out to be anything but the debut Kuldeep Bishnoi’s Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC-BL) was looking for. Despite the tall claims, the party managed to win just Adampur, with the ruling Congress bagging Gohana and Indri. Its Gohana candidate Dharam Pal Singh Malik, the sitting MLA, lost his security deposit. Former chief minister Bhajan Lal also gave a less-than-stellar performance, bagging his traditional Adampur seat for the ninth time with much lesser votes. In the 2005 Assembly polls, the former CM had trounced Ranjit Singh of Congress by 71,081 votes. This time, he could manage a margin of only 26,188.On the other hand, Congress candidate Jagbir Malik wrested the Gohana seat by the highest-ever margin of 22,162 votes from Dr K C Bangar of the INLD. The party’s win at Gohana is being attributed primarily to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s hold over the Jat voters.The ruling Congress succeeded in retaining the Indri seat with Bhim Sain Mehta, defeating Rakesh Kamboj of the HJC by a margin of 5,865 votes. The results were a setback to the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) too, relegating it to the third spot in two constituencies. The BJP on the other hand had to bite the dust everywhere with its candidates losing their security deposits in all the three constituencies.Meanwhile, Hooda expressed his gratitude to the voters of the Assembly constituencies of Indri and Gohana. The CM who had campaigned extensively in all the three constituencies along with his Cabinet colleagues, described the victories of the Congress candidates as the win of the party’s “people-friendly” policies and also of AICC president Sonia Gandhi. Hooda said the pace of development would be further accelerated in these areas to fulfil the aspirations of the people.
