Rajesh Joon, denied a ticket by the Congress, fought as an Independent from the Bahadurgarh seat in the Haryana assembly polls and snatched the seat from his previous party. With 73,191 votes in hand, he won with a margin of 41,999 votes. The sitting Congress MLA slipped to the third position and BJP finished second.
While this was the story of just one seat, an analysis of the result shows that the Grand Old Party could have won nine more seats in the state if it had either given tickets to those who turned rebel or handled them in a better way so that they did not damage its chances to rule the state again.
The fate of the Congress would have been different if it had won at least nine more seats in the Haryana assembly election. Congress has been out of power in Haryana since 2014. This could have been its chance to return but the infighting, clubbed with other factors, shattered its dream as the party managed to get 37 seats against the 46 needed to form the government.
In nine seats, the Independents, who rebelled over being denied tickets, have damaged the party’s vote base. So much so that in four of these seats, Congress finished second and in four, it came third. In one of the seats it finished fourth.
Had the party trusted the right name, it could have won Bahadurgarh, Pundri, Ambala Cantonment, and Tigaon. Further, the results also may have been different in Uchana Kalan, Badhra, Gohana, Kalka, and Ballabgarh seats if it had handled the rebels. Eight of these seats went to the BJP that scored 48 of 90 across the state.
These are the seats where either the Independent candidate was so strong that they won, or scored more votes than Congress candidates, or the votes bagged by them were more than the loss margin for the Congress. The calculations were based on the total votes bagged by the Congress and Independent rebel candidates.
In Bahadurgarh, the only seat among the nine where an Independent won, sitting Congress MLA Rajinder Joon re-contested and managed to get just 28,955 votes and finished third against independent Rajesh Joon’s 73,191 votes. The loss margin for Congress was 44,236 votes.
In Tigaon, Lalit Nagar turned rebel from Congress when the party did not allow him to contest. While the BJP walked away with the seat, Lalit was second with a margin of 37,401 votes. The rebel Independent got 56,828 votes and Congress finished third with 21,656 votes.
In Ambala Cantonment seat, BJP’s Anil Vij won for a fifth straight time with 59,858 votes polled for him. His victory margin of 7,277 votes was the lowest in the last three elections. Here, Independent rebel Chitra Sarwara finished second with 52,581 votes. The Congress trusted Parvinder Pal Pari who finished third with 14,469 votes.
Pundri was another seat where the Congress finished third and party rebel Satbir Banna lost the polls with a narrow margin of 2,197 votes. BJP’s Satpal Jamba scored 42,805 votes and the Independent bagged 40,608 votes. Congress had trusted Sultan Jadaula who finished third with 26,341 votes.
In Ballabhgarh, the Congress candidate finished fourth — the worst performance among the 10 seats — while party rebel Sharda Rathore came second.
Congress Finished Second
Among the four seats where Congress finished second, Uchana Kalan had the narrowest margin of just 32 seats. Here, two Congress rebels spoiled the victory chances for the party. Virender Ghogharian (31,456 votes) and Dilbag Sadil (7,373 votes) bagged close to 39,000 votes while Congress lost by just 32 votes.
In Kalka, which voted for Congress in 2019, BJP’s Shakti Rani Sharma won. While the sitting MLA Pardeep Chaudhary lost by a margin of 10,883 votes, rebel Gopal Sukhomajri bagged 28,924 votes.
In Gohana, Congress rebel Harsh Chikara scored 14,761 votes and finished third. The Congress lost the seat with just 10,429 votes.
In Badhra also, the Congress finished second and lost with a margin of 7,585 votes while party rebel Somveer Ghasola scored 26,730 votes.
In total, Congress finished second in at least 45 seats out of total 90. Had the party considered these factors before the elections, its fate today could have been different.
