Haryana assembly elections: With 2/3rd seats in Sonipat, only small dent in Congress stronghold

GURUGRAM: Congress has managed to retain its bastion of Sonipat, albeit with a minor dent, winning four of the six seats in the district. BJP, which had won only one seat last time, has increased its tally to two, while INLD has been completely routed.
The Jat heartland, which was at the centre of a violent quota agitation in 2016, had given Congress five seats last time.Although BJP tried to strategically field Jat candidates, it did not work in its favour.
The most decisive victory for Congress came from Sonipat seat, where Surender Panwar defeated two-time MLA Kavita Jain with an impressive margin of over 30,000 votes. BJP was banking on Brahmins, Punjabi and Baniya votes but Panwar’s popularity among the masses won the day for Congress. From distributing free helmets to organising religious tours for economically weaker sections, Panwar has earned goodwill for his philanthropy.
In Gohana, voters re-elected Congress’ Jagbir Singh Malik, who defeated LSP’s Raj Kumar Saini by over 4,000 votes. Voters were visibly upset with the ruling government. A sore point was the loss of a railway coach factory to the PM’s constituency, Varanasi.
In Baroda, Congress’ Krishan Pal Hooda won a third consecutive term, defeating BJP’s Yogeshwar Dutt by 4,840 votes. JJP, which had fielded Bhupinder Malik, also failed to make inroads.
Kharkhoda (SC) seat saw a close contest, with Congress candidate Jaiveer Singh defeating JJP’s Pawan Kumar by 1,544 votes.
For BJP, the decisive victory came in Ganaur, where it had fielded INLD’s turncoat Nirmal Rani. Helped by anti-incumbency and transfer of INLD votes, Rani defeated Congress candidate Kuldeep Sharma by over 10,000 votes.
Rai, where migrants are in majority, was expected to overwhelmingly vote for BJP. However, it was a neck and neck fight, with BJP’s Mohan Lal Badoli managing only a slim victory margin of 2,662 votes over Congress candidate Jai Tirath Dahiya.
Political expert Ramji Lal said, “JJP was playing spoilsport in the district and BJP was hoping to gain from the division of Jat votes. Yet, Congress largely managed to foil these attempts. Ganaur was the only surprise, that too mainly because the INLD votes went to BJP because of the candidate (Nirmal Rani).”
Experts have argued that had Congress started campaigning and mobilising voters right after the Lok Sabha elections concluded, the party could have won at least five seats, if not all six. BJP’s wins in Rai and Ganaur are partly due to JJP playing spoiler, they added.
“This mandate comes after very little effort was made by Congress to woo voters. They only went with Congress because of their resentment towards BJP. In Sonipat seat, BJP lost with a huge margin because the Congress candidate (Panwar) has been active there for a while now,” noted Kushal Pal.