Chandigarh, May 16
The state BJP gave its best individual performance, winning seven of the 10 seats and securing a vote share of 34.6 per cent.

While the BJP contested eight seats, its alliance partner, the HJC, lost both seats it contested to the INLD, putting a question mark over continuation of the BJP-HJC alliance.

Rohtak candidate Deepender Singh Hooda, who scored a hat-trick, was the face-saver for the Congress. The party was reduced to third place from four seats and netted 23 per cent of the vote share.

State party chief and sitting MP Ashok Tanwar lost from Sirsa. Shruti Choudhry, daughter of Haryana minister Kiran Choudhry, was third from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh. Naveen Jindal was third from Kurukshetra.

Former state BJP president and sitting MLA Krishan Pal Gurjar won from Faridabad with the biggest margin of 4.34 lakh votes, defeating Avtar Singh Bhadana, who polled 1.81 lakh votes.

BJP’s Ashwini Kumar won from Karnal with the second biggest margin of 3.6 lakh votes, defeating Congress nominee Arvind Sharma, who polled 2.34 lakh votes.

BJP’s Rattan Lal Kataria won from Ambala by 3.47 lakh votes, defeating Congress candidate Raj Kumar Balmiki, who got 2.72 lakh votes.

BJP’s Gurgaon candidate Rao Inderjit Singh won by 2.88 lakh votes, defeating INLD’s Zakir Hussain, who polled 3.58 lakh votes. AAP’s Yogendra Yadav finished fourth.

Former Chief Parliamentary Secretary Dharambir Singh of the BJP won from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh by 1.28 lakh votes, defeating INLD’s Bahadur Singh, who polled 2.75 lakh votes.

In Sonepat, considered a Congress stronghold, Ramesh Kaushik of the BJP won by 77,000 votes, defeating sitting MLA Jagbir Singh Malik of the Congress.

Oscillating fortunes of HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi and INLD’s Dushyant Chautala made Hisar the most keenly watched seat as counting began. Dushyant finished 31,847 votes ahead of Bishnoi, who polled 4.62 lakh votes. In Sirsa, sitting MLA and INLD candidate Charanjit Singh Rori polled 5.06 lakh votes, defeating recently appointed Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar by 1.15 lakh votes.

In Kurukshetra, BJP’s Raj Kumar Saini polled 4.18 lakh votes, defeating INLD candidate Balbir Singh Saini by 1.29 lakh votes.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s home constituency Rohtak was the only seat to elect a Congress candidate. Deepender Hooda polled 4.9 lakh votes, defeating BJP’s Om Prakash Dhankar by 1.7 lakh votes.

A total of 34,188 voters (0.3 per cent) chose the NOTA option. 

Chandigarh, May 16
The Modi wave led to the BJP victory in seven of the 10 seats in Haryana. Besides the Modi factor, anti-incumbency proved to be the second factor at play that led to rout of the Congress and brought two seats for the INLD. The Congress has retained just the Rohtak seat. The vote for change has also cost HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi his Hisar seat.

While most pollsters went wrong in spotting the Modi-led 'tsunami', the things to come for the Congress were apparent in hindsight. Congress leaders such as Rao Inderjit Singh (Gurgaon), Dharambir (Bhiwani-Mahendragarh), Ramesh Chander (Sonepat) could see a shift in people's inclination towards Modi and the BJP switched parties overnight, contested on BJP tickets and won.

In the post-poll scenario, decimated is the word to describe the Congress' plight . The only consolation for the Congress is retaining the Rohtak seat by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda's son Deepender for the third consecutive time.

Troubles do not end but actually begin for the Congress and Hooda after the party's dismal performance. The immediate fallout of the results is going to be a demand from within and outside the Congress for the Chief Minister to step down on moral grounds as the verdict will be seen as a 'referendum' of sorts on his party's governance. Haryana is scheduled for Assembly elections in October this year.

The depiction of a clear wave in favour of Modi could also lead to new alliance in the state. In these elections, the BJP contested the poll in alliance with the HJC. The latter lost both the Sirsa and Hisar seats that it contested in alliance with the BJP. The BJP which has emerged as the biggest vote catcher in these elections is not likely to renegotiate its terms with the HJC for the Assembly elections. At present the BJP and the HJC are committed to contesting 45 seats each in a 90-member House.

It is for the first time in the history of the state that came into being in 1966 that the BJP has performed so well. It captured 34.1 percent votes, which is nearly 10 per cent higher than the INLD's 24.5 per cent. The Congress polled only 23.3 per cent. The HJC, the BSP and AAP polled 6.3, 4.6 and 4.2 per cent votes, respectively.

Dushyant Chautala (INLD), grandson of former chief minister Om Parkash Chautala has created history on two counts by winning the Hisar seat. One, he defeated HJC President Bishnoi and second he has become the youngest parliamentarian in the country. 

Chandigarh, May 16
Congress leaders who are yet to come to terms with the drubbing its candidates received at the hustings are in for harder times in the days to come. Haryana Congress President Ashok Tanwar has himself lost by over 1.15 lakh votes to the INLD nomninee, mainly on account of taking the voters for granted.

The same has been the fate of all other Congress candidates, except Deepender Hooda, who has managed to retain the Rohtak seat.

A large number of Congress leaders, including Venod Sharma, have already quit the Congress. After a clear mandate in favour of the BJP, many others are exploring the possibilities of deserting the Congress.

The problems of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda are getting worse. He cannot explain to the people why his own party leaders like Kumari Selja chose to find her way into the Rajya Sabha rather than re-contest the Ambala Lok Sabha seat that the BJP has won.

With the Congress leadership at the Centre finding itself in an unenviable position after it suffered the worst defeat, there is none to come to the aid of Hooda. His detractors have already sharpened their daggers and are looking at opportunities to settle scores with the Chief Minister. Chaudhary Birender Singh, Hooda's cousin and a detractor, has indicated that he is for a change in leadership to prevent a repeat performance in the Assembly elections.

Both Kiran Choudhry and Captain Ajay Yadav are reportedly spewing venom against the state and central leadership for not extending enough support to their kin. Kiran’s daughter, Shruti Choudhry, re-contested her Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat but came third, losing to both BJP and INLD nominees.

Captain Ajay Yadav was demanding the Gurgaon seat for his son, Rao Charanjeev, but Hooda insisted that the seat be given to Rao Dharam Pal, who lost. Yadav has said that his son would have done better than Hooda’s choice.

Hisar, May 16
Twentysix-year-old greenhorn Dushyant Chautala of the INLD took the revenge of his father’s defeat in the 2011 byelection when he beat Kuldeep Bishnoi (HJC) in the Hisar Lok Sabha constituency. Hisar outcome would hurt Bishnoi more, as he lost the election despite being in alliance with the BJP, which has virtually swept the elections in the country, including Haryana, riding the Modi wave.

Political observers said the result had dealt a big blow to Bishnoi's political prospects, as speculation is rife that the BJP could dump him in favour of the INLD, which has won two seats in the state. Bishnoi's own poll strategy to make it a Jat versus non-Jat contest seemed to have gone awry as it led to extreme polarisation of the Jats in favour of the INLD.

"His non-Jat card witnessed a strong counter-reaction from Jats. Though he succeeded in polarising a big chunk of non-Jat voters, the Jat voters, too, consolidated behind the INLD as a reaction, ditching the Congress. The polling trends indicate that even the traditional voters of other parties, including the HJC's ally, the BJP, the Congress and the BSP, who usually vote for their parties irrespective of the candidates, too, voted on the caste lines,” said experts.

Earlier in the day, the two candidates had a see-saw battle, as the initial trend was going in the favour of the INLD, which remained ahead by a small margin. However, after counting of over 20 per cent votes, Bishnoi started surging ahead of his rival, as the lead once touched around 23,000 votes, causing disquiet among the INLD camp. However, as around 64 per cent votes were counted, Dushyant started overcoming the margin and came on top with over 30 per cent votes yet to be counted.

Sources said Bishnoi slipped out of the counting centre at Mahavir Stadium as the final tally of votes from the Adampur and Nalwa Assembly segments came out, giving him a slender lead of around 24,000, which was much below his expectations.

Hisar, May 16
The drubbing of HJC supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi in Hisar and party candidate Sushil Indora in Sirsa has come as a shocker to the party and its supporters.

Soon after the poll outcome, Bishnoi left the venue and did not interact with mediapersons who followed him to his residence.

Later in the evening, a press note announced that Bishnoi had resigned from the post of party president and his wife and Adampur MLA Renuka Chaudhary had decided to put in her papers from the Assembly.

In the press note, Bishnoi mentioned that he always practised politics of honesty and public interest and never budged under pressure.

He stated, “Despite this, the party does not get the expected support in Hisar and Sirsa. With a heavy heart, I put in my papers as the party president.”

Sirsa, May 16
Charanjit Singh Rori of the INLD has won the Sirsa parliamentary seat by defeating Ashok Tanwar of the Congress by 1,15,736 votes. Rori polled 5,06,370 votes while Tanwar got 3,90,634 votes.

Sushil Indora of the Haryana Janhit Congress polled 2,41,067 votes and remained at the third position, while Aam Aadmi Party candidate Poonam Chand Ratti got 66,844 votes.

Rori obtained more votes than others in the Narwana, Ratia, Sirsa, Rania, Ellenabad, Dabwali and Kalanwali segments of the Sirsa parliamentary segment, while Tanwar and Indora led at the Tohana and Fatehabad assembly seats, respectively.

Rori got a massive lead of 43,761 votes over Tanwar from the Narwana Assembly segment.

From the Ellenabad Assembly seat, represented by Abhay Singh Chautala, Rori polled 60,840 votes against 41,228 polled by Ashok Tanwar.

Rori described his victory as people’s victory.

Tanwar said he respected people’s verdict and congratulated Rori on his victory.

Indora said the results were unexpected for him.

Aggressive campaign, better management helped INLD

An aggressive campaign and better booth-level management by the INLD in the home district of party’s supremo Om Prakash Chautala and drifting of urban votes from the Congress towards HJC were responsible for Tanwar’s defeat.

Tanwar, who won the Sirsa seat by over 35,000 votes by defeating Sita Ram of the INLD at a time when Chautalas’ outfit contested the parliamentary poll in alliance with the BJP, lost to Rori by 1,15,736 votes.

The INLD was fighting this election with its back to the wall after the conviction of their top leaders OP Chautala and his son Ajay Singh Chautala in JBT teachers’ recruitment case.

The INLD workers had visited people door to door telling them that their leaders had been jailed under a conspiracy by the Congress for providing jobs unemployed youths.

The campaign worked, particularly in rural areas, where Chautalas have a following, and it worked in mobilising villagers, particularly those from the Jat community.

The INLD also scored points over others in the matter of booth-level management.

The party leadership constituted committees much before the polls and addressed several meetings to keep the booth-level activists on their toes all the time.

Slipping of urban voters from the Congress also cost Tanwar very dearly in this election.

The urban voters slipped away from the Congress and Tanwar could manage 30,456 out of 1,23,465 votes polled in Sirsa and 34,303 out of 1,62,375 votes polled in Fatehabad.

This was to some extent due to Modi effect in urban areas and opposition from Gopal Kanda in Sirsa.

While Modi effect was visible to some extent in urban area, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate was not a big issue in rural areas of Sirsa, where the votes have been divided between the INLD and the Congress.

The HJC’s candidate Sushil Indora finished third by polling less than half the votes polled by Charanjit Singh Rori despite getting huge support in urban areas. 

Sirsa, May 16
State Congress chief Ashok Tanwar has blamed an unbridled bureaucracy, poor delivery mechanism, treachery by some party leaders and anti-incumbency of the state government for the party’s severe drubbing in Haryana.

Speaking to The Tribune today, Tanwar alleged that bureaucracy in the state had become so uncontrolled that some bureaucrats in the districts had been behaving as “tyrant rulers rather than public servants”.

“While the people were feeling highly oppressed, senior functionaries of the Congress too were being treated with contempt by the bureaucrats,” Tanwar alleged.

The state chief alleged that the delivery mechanism system had become so poor due to the attitude of those at the helm that the party MPs brought funds from the centre with great efforts but no work started on the projects.

Without directly referring to anyone, Tanwar alleged that certain political leaders, who amassed huge wealth through dubious means under the present regime, betrayed the party at the time of elections and worked for the defeat of their own party.

He said anti-incumbency against the present government was also responsible for the party’s debacle.

“We need a complete revamp of the system immediately, as the Assembly elections are not too far,” Tanwar said and added the Congress would bounce back in the upcoming poll and form government in Haryana for the third consecutive time.

Congratulating the winners, Tanwar said he hoped that they would live up to the expectations of the people.

Karnal, May 16
Ashwini Kumar Chopra of the BJP won the Karnal parliamentary constituency by a massive margin today. He defeated his nearest rival and three-time MP Arvind Sharma of Congress by 3,60,147 votes. It is a record margin victory in the history of Karnal seat as no candidate has won with such a huge margin ever before.

Ashwini Chopra, owner of a media group, had contested his first election this time. He polled 5,94,817 votes against the 2,34,670 polled by the Congress nominee.

Jaswinder Singh Sandhu, INLD candidate and former Agriculture Minister, finished third with 1,87,902 votes and Maratha Virender Verma, candidate of the BSP, who remained second in last general elections, remained on the fourth place with 1,02,628 votes. AAP candidate Paramjeet Singh also could not do well and polled only 32,060 votes.

Chopra polled more votes than ID Swami did in 1999 and made a history. Swami had polled 4,33,733 votes in 1999 and had defeated Bhajan Lal with a margin of 1,47,854 votes.

Although Chopra won from all nine Assembly segments, Panipat gave him the highest margin. Here, he polled around 92,794 votes and had a lead of 70,835. At Nilokehri, he polled 55,914 votes and had a margin of 27,621 votes. At Indri, Chopra polled 69,084 votes, while he polled 78,825 votes at Karnal and 65,824 at Gharaunda.

Chopra kept his momentum in Panipat (rural) also. Here he polled 77,083 votes here. He got 45,737 votes at Israna and 65,737 votes at Samalkha.

Sirsa, May 16
Predictions of the “satta” bazaar have proved absolutely correct as far as the results of Haryana are concerned.

Exit polls by various media organisations have, however, proved slightly wrong, though these surveys too were predicting a severe drubbing for the Congress.

Soon after polling for the 10 seats in the state on April 10, the “satta” bazaar started giving seven seats to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), two seats to the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and one to Congress.

The bookies gave Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Sonepat, Faridabad, Gurgaon and Bhiwani to the BJP, Sirsa and Hisar to the INLD and lone Rohtak seat to Congress.

The Congress leaders, particularly the state Congress chief Ashok Tanwar had rubbished the predictions of the “satta” bazaar calling them manipulated.

Various exit polls that came after the end of the final phase of polling on May 12 erred a little in their assessment, though they too were very close to the final results.

ABP News Nielsen Exit Polls gave nine seats to BJP and one seat to the Congress while Hansa Research Survey for the NDTV gave seven seats to BJP, two to Congress and one to the INLD.

“Our surveys are far nearer to the ground than the exit polls, as huge amount of money is at stake in the ‘satta’ bazaar,” said a bookie at Sirsa. He said those in the trade travel extensively in the constituency to gauge the mood of voters before the polls and on the day of polling to have a correct assessment of the situation, while the exit polls were largely dependent on survey of a few urban voters.

Guess how much money was at stake in the betting market in the present 
elections?

“According to a TV report, nearly Rs 50,000 crore was on stake in “satta” across the country in this poll and per conservative estimates Rs 2,000 crore was on stake in Haryana alone,” the bookies said.

Gurgaon, May 16
Akin to the entire nation, Gurgaon constituency took up the saffron colour. Two-time MP Rao Inderjit Singh, inducted in BJP a few months ago, registered a victory with a whopping margin of 2,75,000 votes.

Rao polled 6,44,780 votes, followed by INLD candidate Zakir Hussain getting 3,70,058 votes. Congress continued its poor show here as well with its senior leader and candidate Rao Dharampal getting just 1,33,713 votes.

The most unexpected number, however, was for AAP candidate Yogender Yadav who got 79,452 votes.

All eyes were set on Inderjit ever since he severed his relationships with Congress. The two-time MP became the most talked-about turncoat when he went ahead and joined BJP.

Congress could not find any leader of his stature to oppose him here and their choice of Rao Dharampal proved to be a wrong one.

Stated as one of the most important leaders of AAP, Yogender Yadav, who created ripples with his campaign and complaints of rigging could not win voters’ heart. The party's fight against corruption apparently was no match for Modi's development model. Given to fact that both Kejriwal and Yadav hail from Haryana, the defeat is surely a dampener.

The results have shattered caste-based politics in the constituency, giving parties a reason to think for new principles and goals. AAP may have to altogether revamp its experimental novice and, till date, unsuccessful approach.

Sonepat, May 16
Congress defeat from Sonepat parliamentary seat is being seen as a personal setback to CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda as he had paid special attention to this constituency after Rohtak.

While his son Deepender Hooda succeeded in re-securing his Rohtak seat, the CM failed to secure Jagbir Malik’s victory from Sonepat.

Being a Jat belt, Hooda paid special attention here and held a series of roadshows. Hooda’s wife Asha Hooda also hails from Matindu village in reserved Kharkhoda Assembly segment of Sonepat.

Kaushik wins with margin of over 77,000 votes

Ramesh Kaushik (3,47,095 votes) of BJP defeated Jagbir Malik (2,69,735 votes) of Congress with a margin of 77,360 votes. Interestingly, both Kaushik and Malik remained cabinet colleagues in Haryana during Bansi Lal-led Haryana Vikas Party’s (HVP) government from 1996 to 1999. There was neck-to-neck competition between Jagbir and Padam Singh Dahiya of INLD for the second place but Dahiya (2,64,345 votes) had to be satisfied with the third place.

AAP, BSP candidates lose deposit

All other 20 candidates, including Jai Singh (48,590) of AAP and Suman Singh Sharma (24,102) of BSP even failed to save their security deposit as they did not get the required one-sixth (16.67 per cent) of total valid polled votes.

2,399 chose NOTA

As many as 2,399 electors chose NOTA option despite the fact that around 80 per cent voters did not know about the introduction of this option on the directions of the Supreme Court for the first time.

Modi wave and division of Jat votes helped

The electors of Sonepat did not go with Hooda’s development card. Modi’s first election rally at Gohana proved beneficial for Ramesh Kaushik as riding on Modi wave he managed to win. Besides, division of Jat votes between Malik and Dahiya also helped Brahman candidate Kaushik.

Cong, INLD attribute defeat to Modi wave

Kaushik also attributed his victory to Modi wave and the confidence shown by the electors in Modi’s leadership. The people were fed up of the wrong doings of the Congress governments in the Centre and in state, he added.

In reply to a question about his priorities for the constituency, he said jobs for the youth, accelerated development and welfare of every section would be his priority.

On the other hand, Malik said it was the pro-Modi and anti-Congress wave in the country that led to the party’s debacle. “Win and defeat are part of the game,” he said, hoping that Congress would do well in the coming Assembly elections.

Dahiya also admitted that it was Modi wave as the people wanted to see him as the Prime Minister. However, he pointed out that despite that, INLD’s victory in Hisar and Sirsa had given a boost to the party workers’ morale and voters in the state and it would be helpful in the upcoming elections.

Ambala, May 16
Riding high on the ‘Modi wave’ and Bhupinder Singh Hooda-Kumari Selja spat, which proved detrimental for the development of the Ambala constituency (reserved), BJP’s Rattan Lal Kataria registered a thumping win over his closest rival and Congress candidate Raj Kumar Valmiki by a margin of over 3.47 lakh votes.

Kataria maintained lead in all nine Assembly segments of the Ambala constituency till the final results were declared.

Out of 11,86,224 votes polled on April 10, Kataria bagged 6,12,121 votes, while Valmiki secured 2,72,047. INLD’s Kusum Sherwal finished third with 1,29,571 votes. AAP candidate SP Singh got only 63,626 votes. A total of 7,816 voters used NOTA option.

The declaration of the results was delayed after an EVM in Jagadhri developed some technical snag. However, it was rectified and the results were declared later in the evening.

With the lion’s share, the BJP got 50.2 per cent votes. The Congress got 22.3 per cent votes, while INLD bagged 10.6 per cent of the total votes. Kataria was benefited by the ‘Modi wave’ couple with lack of development during the previous term of MP Kumari Selja. There was also a strong anti-incumbency factor which worked in his favour along with the issue of price rise.

Congress candidate Valmiki’s election campaign was marred dissidence within the rank and file of the party, which opposed his candidature and did not support his campaign.

Bhiwani, May 16
BJP candidate Dharambir Singh defeated his nearest rival INLD candidate Rao Bahadur Singh with a margin of 1,29,003 votes in the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh Lok Sabha seat. Dharambir jumped into the poll fray after quitting the Congress and resigning from the post of MLA from the Sohna Assembly segment in Gurgaon.

Outgoing MP and Congress nominee Shruti Choudhry, daughter of Public Health Engineering Minister Kiran Choudhry, remained on third position.

Dharambir polled 4,04,065 votes and Rao Bahadur Singh got 2,75,062 while Shruti Choudhry secured 2,68,007 votes. Besides them, BSP candidate Ved Pal Tanwar and Aam Aadmi Party candidate Lalit Agarwal managed to get fourth and fifth position with 27,823 and 22,172 votes, respectively. CPI (M) nominee Master Sher Singh polled just 3,439 votes.

The BJP candidate got lead in Bhiwani, Dadri, Mahendragarh, Narnaul, Ateli and Nangal Choudhry, while Congress candidate emerged victorious in Tosham and Loharu Assembly segments. The INLD took lead in Badhra Assembly segment.

The victory of Dharambir in six Assembly segments of the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh parliamentary constituency has also set the alarm bell ringing for the Congress as four segments are being represented by its MLAs. Among them Rao Narender (Narnaul) and Satpal Sangwan (Dadri) are ministers in the state government while Anita Yadav (Ateli) and Rao Daan Singh (Mahendragarh) have been enjoying the status of the Chief Parliamentary Secretary.

Shruti holds Modi wave responsible for defeat

Shruti Choudhry held Modi wave responsible behind her defeat in the Lok Sabha polls. She said the impact of the wave was, too, witnessed in the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh constituency. Shruti said: “Victory and defeat are the part of democracy. I worked hard for the overall development of the constituency and tried to resolve people's problems. My efforts will continue for the development of my constituency.”

Rohtak, May 16
The result thrown up by the electors created a peculiar situation at Rohtak where neither party was able to celebrate its victory.

Though Congress nominee and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda's son Deepender Singh Hooda defeated his main rival Om Prakash Dhankhar (BJP) by a convincing margin of over 1.70 lakh votes, the Congress candidates in all other parliamentary constituencies across the state lost .

On the other hand, the situation was the other way round for the BJP, which won seven of the 10 seats in Haryana, its best individual performance in the state ever since its inception. However, the saffron party's candidate from the Rohtak Lok Sabha constituency lost the election, which subdued the atmosphere of celebration at the state BJP headquarters located here.

Hence, though the Congress as well as BJP camps celebrated their respective victories in their own right, the celebrative spirit was lacking in the festivities.

On the other hand, BJP nominee Dhankhar was considered an outsider and rather unknown face by voters in most parts of the constituency despite his roots being in Jhajjar district.

Hence, Deepender not only retained the seat but also succeeded in scoring a political hat-trick despite the fact that he was not able to campaign due to a painful spinal disorder. The poll performance of the other aspirants, including INLD's Shamsher Kharkara and AAP's Naveen Jaihind proved to be below general expectations.

BJP's laddoos go in vain

Apparently sensing victory, supporters of BJP candidate Om Prakash Dhankhar e-mailed his resume to mediapersons hours before the declaration of the election results. So hopeful were the saffron-party workers and sympathisers of Dhankhar's win that they even ordered large quantities of laddoos to be prepared in the event of his victory. 

Kurukshetra, May 16
BJP candidate from Kurukshetra Rajkumar Saini defeated his nearest rival Balbir Singh Saini of the INLD by 1,29,736 votes. Rajkumar polled 4,18,112 votes, Balbir Singh 2,88,376 votes and sitting MP Naveen Jindal of the Congress 2,87,722 votes.

Rajkumar led in six constituencies, Jindal in two and Balbir Singh Saini in one. Chatar Singh Saini of the BSP was fourth with 68,926 votes. AAP nominee Balwinder Kaur secured 32,554 votes and 2,482 chose NOTA.

Rajkumar Saini attributed his victory to people’s support and their faith in the leadership of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. “It is the victory of the people,” he said. Asked about his priorities, he said. “Promoting Kurukshetra as a religious tourist spot and generating employment will top my priority list.”

Balbir Singh Saini said, “What can we say? It is disappointing, but we accept the mandate. The Modi factor worked. The INLD will introspect and get ready for Assembly elections.”

Jindal said “It was the Modi factor that led to our defeat. It does not matter if I win or lose. My objective has always been social service. I will continue social work through OP Jindal Gramin Jan Kalyan Sansthan.”