The Hindu : National : INLD, HVP fail to open account in Haryana

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Friday, May 14, 2004

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National

INLD, HVP fail to open account in Haryana

By Rajesh Ahuja

CHANDIGARH, MAY 13. The Congress swept the Lok Sabha polls in Haryana winning nine out of 10 seats while the BJP managed to retain the Sonepat seat.

Interestingly, the ruling Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) were not even able to open their account.

In the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress, which fought under the leadership of its then State unit chief, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, failed to win even a single seat while the INLD and the BJP (then partners) easily won five seats each.

Political observers feel that the road show of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, her two election rallies in Mahendergarh and Ambala coupled with the leadership of Bhajan Lal, a former Chief Minister and president of the State party unit, played a vital role in converting the undercurrent against the Chautala regime, in particular, and the NDA, in general, into a massive mandate for the Congress.

The INLD suffered its worst-ever rout as Ajay Singh and Abhey Singh, sons of the Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautala, lost badly in the Bhiwani and Kurukshetra constituencies. Surender Singh, son of the Haryana Vikas Party supremo, failed to make a mark in his home fief of Bhiwani.

The prominent Congress winners are Atma Singh Gill (Sirsa), Bhupender Singh Hooda (Rohtak), Inderjit Singh (Mahendergarh), Jai Prakash (Hissar), Avtar Singh Bhadana (Faridabad), Kuldeep Singh Bishnoi (Bhiwani), Arvind Sharma (Karnal), Selja (Ambala), Navin Jindal (Kurukshetra). The outgoing BJP MP, Kishan Singh Sangwan, managed to retain the Sonepat seat in a tough triangular contest.

According to the data compiled by the Election Office, Selja, a senior national Congress leader, defeated the outgoing BJP MP, Rattan Lal Kataria, by a margin of 2,25,589 votes. Mr. Jindal defeated Abhey Singh Chautala by a margin of 1,60,238 votes in the Kurukshetra constituency. Dr. Arvind Sharma defeated the outgoing Minister of State for Home, I.D. Swami, in the prestigious Karnal seat by a margin of 99,773 votes while the Transport Minister in the Chautala Cabinet, Ashok Arora, fared a poor third polling 80,162 votes. Mr. Sangwan defeated his nearest Congress rival, Dharampal Singh Malik, in Sonepat by a margin of 7,522 votes.

Mr. Hooda, who had earlier defeated the late Deputy Prime Minister, Devi Lal, in Rohtak thrice, re-established his hold over the constituency by trouncing the INLD candidate with a margin of over 1.50 lakh votes.

Mr. Avtar Singh Bhadana defeated the INLD nominee, Mohd. Illyas , by a margin of 1,25,147 votes while the outgoing MP, R.C. Bainda managed to get only 1,07,236 votes. Rao Inderjit Singh, managed to win the Mahendergarh seat by defeating the Samata Party nominee, Raghu Yadav by 1,77,544 votes.

Mr. Bishnoi defeated Surender Singh of the HVP by a margin of 35,293 votes in the Bhiwani constituency while Ajay Singh Chautala emerged third. And the former Union Minister, Jai Prakash defeated the outgoing INLD MP, Surender Singh Barwala, by a huge margin of 1,82,836 votes. Atma Singh Gill defeated the outgoing INLD MP, Sushil Kumar Indora, by a margin of 72,388 votes in the Sirsa constituency.

According to insiders in the State Congress unit, the party's massive victory and that of Kuldeep Bishnoi has come as a shot in the arm for Mr. Bhajan Lal who is regarded as a "master manipulator who can feel the pulse of the masses."

Mr. Bhajan Lal, felicitated Ms. Gandhi for the landslide victory and expressed confidence that the people of the country would see better days under the Government led by her.

While congratulating the people of Haryana for electing the Congress nominees, he said that Mr. Chautala should take moral responsibility for the defeat of the INLD and resign.

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