As Prime Minister Narendra Modi roared back to power with a historic mandate in parliamentary elections that saw a saffron sweep bigger than the party got five years ago in Haryana, a “perfect 10” for the Bharatiya Janata Party left the Congress and regional parties dazed and demolished in the state.
Riding high on “Modi wave”, the BJP won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Jatland-Haryana, surpassing its last Lok Sabha election tally. The saffron party managed to wrest Rohtak, a Congress bastion and other two Lok Sabha seats of Hisar and Sirsa, which it had lost in general elections 2014.
As the BJP made handsome gains in northern state of Haryana, its vote share also soar past 50 percent. Out of the 70 percent of Haryana’s nearly 1.80 crore people who voted, 58 percent voted for the BJP in entire Haryana.
Its main challenger-Congress could not retain its bastion-Rohtak and also failed to open its account in the state in Lok Sabha polls while the regional party’s vote percentage remained in single digit in Haryana, where the State Assembly polls are due to be held later this year.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is leading the BJP Government in Haryana. The BJP has 48 MLAs and its arch rival, Congress has 17 MLAs in the 90-member Haryana Assembly.
The ruling BJP got 58 percent vote share (7357347) in parliamentary polls, winning all 10 seats. In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the party had won seven seats, managing to get a vote share of 34.7 per cent as compared to 17.21 per cent in 2009 when it failed to win any seat.
The BJP candidates won the elections with margins of more than lakhs of votes except Rohtak nominee Arvind Sharma, who wrested the Rohtak seat from three-time MP Deependra Singh Hooda with a margin of 7503 votes, in a close contest.
The Election Commission data suggested that the BJP maintained its lead in as many as 79 assembly constituencies out of total 90 in the general elections.
As the results is a ringing endorsement of popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the saffron surge in Haryana also suggested how the BJP has grown from strength to strength since 2014 parliamentary polls in the state. Until 2014, the Congress and Indian National Lok Dal were the major parties in the state.
The clean sweep by BJP, which focused on consolidation of non-Jat votes in Haryana, also indicated towards the waning influence of the Jats.
The Jat community has dominated the state politics with Haryana witnessing the rule of Jat Chief Ministers namely Bansi Lal, Om Prakash Chautala and Bhupinder Singh Hooda in the past three decades.
Jats are counted as the dominant vote bank constituting about 29 percent of state’s population (around 25 percent of the electorate) while the remaining 75 percent are non-Jats, which include Dalits, Brahmins, Yadavs, Gujjars, Baniyas, Rajputs among others. Dalits voters form around 20 percent in the state.
“Modi wave” coupled with BJP’s strategy of non-Jat polarization not only proved the caste arithmetic of opposition wrong but also resulted in defeat of their heavyweight candidates.
Congress’ heavyweight Jat leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his son Deepender Singh Hooda, a three-time MP lost the poll battle from their bastions –Sonipat and Rohtak.
Even as the party’s vote share increased to 28.42 percent (3604106) this time from 22.9 percent in 2014 polls, the Congress failed to register a victory even on a single seat in the state and all its candidates finished at second spot except in Hisar seat.
In 2014, Deepender Hooda was the lone Congress MP to register victory but this time, he could not retain Rohtak seat and the party drew a blank in Haryana.
All Congress’ bigwigs including two-time former Chief Minister Hooda, his son Deepender, state party chief Ashok Tanwar, Rajya Sabha MP Kumari Selja tasted defeat at the hands of BJP candidates, who had sought votes in the name of PM Modi.
In 2014 general polls, the Congress had lost eight of the nine seats it had won in 2009 and saw its vote share declining to 22.9 per cent as compared to 41.77 per cent in 2009.
As the political bigwigs failed to revive party’s electoral prospects in Haryana, the Congress dismal performance is certain to have an adverse impact in State Assembly poll due to be held in October this year.
The BJP’s campaign around Modi and the nationalism plank also served well to divert attention from the state centric issues, which the Congress and regional parties in the fray were raising during the canvassing.
The Indian National Lok Dal, which was once opposition party in Haryana failed to retain two seats of Hisar and Sirsa, it had won in last general elections. The party’s vote share declined to dismal 1.89 percent (240258 votes) in 2019 from its vote share of 24.4 per cent in 2014. The INLD had recorded vote share of 15.78 per cent in 2009.
All 10 candidates of INLD lost security deposits and finished at distant third to fifth rank in the general elections. Arjun Chautala, grandson of INLD chief Om Parkash Chautala, who was party’s hope to survive in state’s politics, faced a humiliating defeat getting just 4.93 votes and finishing at fifth place in Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat.
INLD’s splinter group –Jannayak Janta Party also suffered the same unfortunate fate in its first parliamentary polls. Contesting the polls in an alliance with Aam Aadmi Party, the JJP fought on seven seats leaving three for AAP. Except JJP leader Dushyant Chautala who finished at second place in Hisar Lok Sabha seat, all JJP-AAP candidates lost their security deposits.
The JJP-AAP alliance had big hopes from Dushyant, who lost the Hisar seat against BJP’s nominee Brijendra Singh with a huge margin of over 3.1 lakh votes.
In last general elections, the AAP had contested on its own in Haryana and lost all seats. This time, AAP’s vote share declined to 0.4 percent from 4.2 percent in 2014. The alliance with JJP did not work for the AAP as its state party chief Naveen Jaihind could get only 0.84 percent votes in Faridabad Lok Sabha seat, losing his security deposit.
Similarly, the candidates of Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party –Loktantra Suraksha Party of BJP rebel Raj Kumar Saini, also failed to sway the dalit and backward class voters in the state. All candidates of BSP-LSP alliance finished at poor fourth or fifth place, even losing their security deposit. On the two seats of Sonipat and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, which it contested, the LSP candidates could get only 3.1 percent and 1.74 percent votes respectively.
The BSP got a vote share of 3.64 percent (461273) in general elections, a decline from its vote share to 4.6 per cent in 2014 and 4.98 per cent in 2009.
The decline in vote share is all the more worrying for regional parties like INLD, JJP-AAP and LSP-BSP combine as Haryana will go to Assembly polls in next three to four months.
The BJP will contest the State Assembly polls in an alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal while the Congress is likely to go it alone in the polls. The respective alliances of JJP-AAP and LSP-BSP are also likely to remain intact for State Assembly elections.
Meanwhile, the poll results triggered a flurry of political activity on Friday in the state. While INLD state chief Ashok Arora submitted his resignation from the post, a video of Congress leader and MLA from Adampur Kuldeep Bishnoi went viral where he was seen complaining to the people over lack of support for his son Bhavya Bishnoi, who was candidate from Hisar parliamentary constituency and finished at third place in his poll debut.
Ashok Tanwar, Congress state chief met party workers and claimed that the party worked unitedly to contest the elections. We will analyze the reasons of defeat and start preparations for contesting the Haryana Assembly polls, he said.
On the other hand, the BJP camp remained jubilant a day after the results. The Chief Minister Manohar Lal met party leaders, newly appointed MPs and Yoga Guru Ramdev at his residence here on Friday.
203 candidates lost their security deposit
As many as 203 candidates lost their security deposits. In Haryana, a total of 223 candidates were in fray to contest on 10 Lok Sabha seats.
As per the rules, it is mandatory for the candidates to get one-sixth of the total valid votes to remain safe from losing their security deposit.
16 candidates in Ambala Lok Sabha constituency, 19 in Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, 22 in Gurugram, 14 in Karnal, 18 in Sirsa, 27 in Sonipat, 22 in Kurukshetra, 25 in Faridabad, 24 in Hisar and 16 in Rohtak have lost their security deposits.
41781 opted for NOTA
A total of 41,781 NOTA votes were cast in the general elections in the state. This accounts for 0.33 per cent of the total votes polled.
NOTA, which stands for 'None Of The Above', was an option available to voters who did not want to vote in favour of any candidate standing for a particular constituency in Lok Sabha polls.
A maximum of 7,943 NOTA votes were cast in Ambala Lok Sabha constituency and minimum of 2,041 NOTA votes in Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha constituency.
In Gurugram, 5,389 votes were cast in favour of NOTA, 5,463 in Karnal, 3,198 in Kurukshetra, 4,339 in Sirsa, 2,464 in Sonipat, 4,986 in Faridabad, 2,957 in Hisar and 3,001 in Rohtak.
