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Journalism of Courage
After its complaint to the Election Commission (EC) about alleged irregularities of vote counting in seven Assembly seats in Haryana, the Congress has submitted an updated memorandum with complaints from 13 more seats.
The BJP won 12 of the seats while one was bagged by the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). Among the 13 seats, 11 saw direct contests between the BJP and Congress; one saw a contest between the INLD and the Congress; and one between the BJP and an Independent.
With the memorandum, submitted on Friday, the Congress also attached a complaint from the party’s Panipat City candidate Varinder Kumar, who alleged that many Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) control units during counting showed 99% battery level. He also alleged his election agents were not allowed to carry copies of Form 17C that records the number of votes cast in a polling station into the counting halls and that the agents were unable to match the data, leading to suspicion of tampering.
Uchana Kalan: The constituency recorded the slimmest margin in the polls — 32. Former Deputy Chief Minister and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) chief Dushyant Chautala, the grandson of former Haryana CM Om Prakash Chautala, and former Union minister Birender Singh’s son Brijendra Singh contested from this high-profile, Jat-dominated seat. Dushyant ended up coming fifth, polling just 7,950 votes and losing his security deposit. The final round came down to Brijendra and the BJP’s Devender Chatar Bhuj Atri, with the final round placing the BJP ahead by just 32 votes. Atri went on to poll 48,968 votes, while Brijendra got 48,936 votes. The only time the BJP won the seat was in 2014, when the party’s Prem Lata, Birendra Singh’s wife, won.
Pataudi: It was one of the rare contests in Haryana where two women candidates took on each other. The Congress fielded debutant Pearl Chaudhary, 48, a lawyer, to take on sitting MLA Bimla Chaudhary. The Congress last won Pataudi in 2005 when Bhupinder Chaudhary, Pearl’s father, won defeating the INLD’s Ganga Ram. However, Ram won the seat in 2009, defeating Bhupinder by 24,747 votes. In the 2014 Assembly polls, Bimla won by 38,963 votes, defeating Ganga Ram. She retained the seat in 2019. This time, Bimla defeated Pearl by 46,530 votes.
Indri: The BJP has been winning this seat since 2014. The party’s Karan Dev Kambhoj won the seat with a margin of 24,000 against the INLD in 2014, his successor Ram Kumar Kashyap increased the party’s margin to about 8,000. In the recent election, Ram Kumar Kashyap won again, defeating the Congress’s Rakesh Kambhoj, but with a reduced margin of 15,149 votes.
Badkhal: Here too is the same story, with the BJP winning since 2014. The BJP’s Seema Trikha narrowly escaped defeat in 2019, when she defeated the Congress’s Vijay Pratap Singh with just about 3,000 votes. This time, Dhanesh Adlkaha polled 79,476 votes and won with a margin of 6,181 votes.
Faridabad NIT: This is among the seats where the INLD’s waning influence is visible. From 19 in 2014 to just two this year, the party has been on the decline. In 2014, the party’s Nagendra Badhana won the seat with a narrow margin. Then, in 2019, the seat went to the Congress’s Neeraj Sharma who defeated Bhadana, then with the BJP, with a slim margin of over 3,000 votes. This time, the BJP’s Satish Kumar Phadgna defeated Sharma of the Congress by 33,217 votes.
Nalwa: This is also a seat that slipped away from the INLD. In 2019, the BJP’s Ranbir Gangwa won the seat by defeating the Congress’s Randhir Panihar by 10,000 votes. Panihar, who contested this time on a BJP ticket, defeated the Congress’s Anil Mann by 12,144 votes.
Rania: This seat was also dominated by regional players, the INLD and the Gopal Kanda-led Haryana Lokhit Party and is one of the two seats retained by the INLD. In 2014, INLD Ram Chand Kamboj won the seat against the HLP’s Gobind Kanda. Independent Ranjit Singh clinched the seat in 2019, against Gobind again. This time, the INLD’s Arjun Chautala, the younger son of the party’s senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala, won the seat over the Congress’s Sarv Mitter by 4,191 seats.
Palwal: This seat has been swinging between the BJP and the Congress since 2014. The BJP’s Deepak Mangla won the seat in 2019 against the Congress’s Karan Singh Dalal by 28,000 votes. Now, the party’s margin has increased, with Gaurav Gautam defeating Dalal again by 33,605 votes.
Ballabgarh: The BJP’s Mool Chand Sharma has been winning the seat since 2014. While in 2014 and 2019, he won against two different Congress candidates, this time he defeated Independent Sharda Rathore by 17,730 votes. The Congress’s Parag Sharma only polled 8,674 votes, standing fourth behind another Independent who got 23,077 votes.
Barwala: This other INLD seat in 2014 was won by the Jannayak Janta Party’s Jogi Ram Sihag in 2019. This time, the BJP’s Ranbir Gangwa won the seat over the Congress’s Ramnivas Ghorela by 26,942 votes.
Gharaunda: The BJP’s Harvinder Kalyan has been winning the seat since 2014. In 2019, he defeated the Congress’s Anil Kumar by 17,402 votes, while this time he defeated the Congress’s Varinder Singh Rathore by 4,531 votes.
Kosli: Another seat the BJP has been winning since 2014. This time, the party’s Anil Yadav won it against Jagdish Yadav by 17,209 votes.
Badshahpur: The BJP’s Narbir Singh won it against the INLD’s Rakesh Daulatabad in 2014 by a margin of 18,000 votes. Then, in 2019, Daulatabad, this time an Independent, defeated the BJP’s Manish Yadav by 10,000 votes. This time, the BJP’s Rao Narbir Singh won the seat against the Congress’s Vardhan Yadav by 60,705 votes.
