32 votes and 12 Independents: How Haryana’s closest battle played out, was won by BJP

BJP’s Devender Chatar Bhuj Atri defeats Brijendra Singh of Congress, former Dy CM Dushyant Chautala pushed to fifth spot.

Written by Varinder Bhatia

Chandigarh | Updated: October 10, 2024 09:29 AM IST

3 min read

Devendra Atri with Haryana Chief Minster Nayab Singh Saini at a Jan Arshiwad rally in Uchana Kalan. (Photo: X/@Devender4Uchana)

The Uchana Kalan Assembly seat of Haryana’s Jind district has been swinging between the Om Prakash Chautala and Birender Singh families since 1977. On Tuesday, the BJP’s Devender Chatar Bhuj Atri managed to wrest the seat with just 32 votes — the slimmest margin in the Haryana elections this time.

As has been the case in this high-profile Jat-dominated seat, members of both families contested from Uchana Kalan this time too. The stakes increased further when former deputy Chief Minister and Jannayak Janata Party chief Dushyant Chautala, the grandson of former Haryana CM Om Prakash Chautala, contested from the seat again.

Former Union minister Birender Singh’s son Brijendra Singh decided to contest from the seat on a Congress ticket. It was supposed to be a neck-and-neck battle between the two political heirs, but the results threw more surprises than expected. One, Dushyant ended up coming fifth, polling just 7,950 votes and losing his security deposit.

Two, the battle ended up coming down to Brijendra and 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 this seat in its electoral history was in 2014 when Birender Singh’s wife Prem Lata was the party candidate.

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Dushyant Chautala at the ‘Jan Aashish Rally’ organised in my his party in Uchana Kalan. (Photo: X/@Dchautala)

Multiple factors are said to have been behind Brijendra’s loss, but the most obvious one was the 12 Independents in the fray.

At least three candidates who contested as Independents caused a major dent in the anti-BJP vote share that could have either gone to Congress or JJP.

Virender Ghogharian who contested as Independent got 31,456 votes and finished third, while another Independent named Vikas got 13,458 votes and finished fourth.

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Dilbag Sandil, a third Independent, got 7,373 votes and finished sixth, while the INLD’s Vinod Pal Singh Dulganch got 2,653 votes and finished seventh.

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In 2019, Dushyant polled 92,504 votes and defeated the BJP’s Prem Lata by over 40,000 votes.

Earlier, in 2014, Prem Lata defeated Dushyant, then an Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate, by 7,480 votes.

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Haryana Haryana BJP Jind