M A I N   N E W S

BJP, INLD wiped out in Haryana 
Tribune News Service and UNI

Chandigarh, May 13
Staging a massive comeback in Haryana, the Congress established leads in all the ten constituencies in the state early in the day and blew up some big guns of the Bharatiya Janata Party that is facing a wipeout in the state. The Congress had drawn a blank in the 1999 elections, while the BJP and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) of Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala shared five seats each.

In Karnal, Minister of State for Home I. D. Swami (BJP) has lost to Congress candidate Arvind Sharma. In Rohtak, Leader of Opposition in Haryana Assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Cong) downed his nearest rival Capt Abhimanyu (BJP) by 1,53,757 votes. Cong has wrested the seat from the INLD.

Ajay Singh Chautala and Abhey Singh Chautala, the two sons of the
Chief Minister, have lost in Bhiwani and Kurukshetra, respectively. In Bhiwani, Kuldeep Singh (Cong) won the seat, while Ajay Singh Chautala (INLD) was pushed way back to the third place.

In Kurukshetra, Naveen Jindal floored Abhey Singh Chautala (INLD) by 1.22 lakh votes. In Ambala (SC), former Union Minister Kumari Selja (Cong) gave a crushing defeat to state BJP president Rattan Lal Kataria.

In Sonepat, Dharam Pal Malik (Cong) was leading over BJP nominee K. S. Sangwan by 12,000. Controversial INLD candidate Krishna Malik, wife of Haryana DGP M. S. Malik on leave, was placed third. In Sirsa (SC), Atma Singh Gill (Cong) is leading by 15,000 votes over Sushil Kumar Indora (INLD), while in Faridabad, Avtar Singh Bhadana (Cong) is ahead of Mohd Ilyas (INLD) by 85,000. These results are expected anytime soon.

In Hisar, Jai Prakash Barwala (Cong) defeated Surender Singh Barwala (INLD), while in Mahendragarh, Rao Inderjeet Singh (Cong) was ahead of Dr Sudha Yadav (BJP) by over 44,000 votes.

Shimla, May 13
Pratibha Singh of the Congress, wife of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, has won from the prestigious Mandi parliamentary seat. She defeated her nearest rival, Maheshwar Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party by 66,000 votes. The Congress has wrested this seat from the BJP.

Col Dhani Ram Shandil of the Congress has been declared elected from Shimla (SC) defeating his nearest rival, Hira Nand Kashyap of the BJP, by more than 1,08,000 votes.

Punnulal Mohile of the BJP has been the winning candidate from Bilaspur-SC after defeating rival Besant Pahare of the Congress by 81,000 votes. The BJP has done well to retain this seat.

In Hamirpur, Suresh Kumar Chandel of the BJP has won by 2202 votes. However, things are different for former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar of the BJP in home ground Kangra, where he lost to Chander Kumar, Minister for Forest, by 13,000 votes. — PTI, UNI