Chandigarh, May 16
The just-concluded Lok Sabha elections in the state have many firsts.

A history of sorts was created in Haryana when the Congress, led by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, retained its previous tally of nine Lok Sabha seats. Before that no ruling party had been able to achieve this feat in the state ever. The Haryana electorate is known to be highly volatile. If in one election it would give all seats to one party, in the next the same party would be reduced to nil.

Hooda cannot be denied the credit for this remarkable win of his party, despite several constraints. The elections saw the BSP taking away a considerable chunk of the Congress vote. In many constituencies like Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Gurgaon and Faridabad, party nominees had to face open sabotage at the hands of the party MLAs. Still these seats were won by the Congress. In fact, there was hardly a constituency where Congressmen were not working against the party nominees.

It is also for the first time that two women MPs from the state will sit in the Lok Sabha.

The elections saw a complete rout of the INLD-BJP alliance. It has happened for the first time that the alliance between these two parties have drawn a blank. They had always managed some seats in the state whenever they fought together. The alliance, which was not approved by the rank and file of the two parties earlier, has been rejected by the electorate also. This may lead to realignment of non-Congress political forces in the state soon. The Assembly elections, scheduled for February next, may be held earlier because the Congress may not be charitable enough to the Opposition not to cash in on its stupendous success in the Lok Sabha elections.

The humiliation for the INLD is further compounded by the fact that its vote percentage, which was second to the Congress in 2004, has fallen to the third place, behind, of all parties, the BSP.

The BSP has not only increased its share in the state vote bank from 4.98 per cent to 15.73 per cent this year, it has also managed to wrest the second slot from the BJP in Gurgaon and Karnal. The INLD’s share is 15.68 per cent against 22.43 per cent it had in 2004. The vote percentage of the BJP and the HJC is 12.09 and 9.89, respectively.

The win has refuted HJC leader Kuldeep Bishnoi’s claim that in 2004 and 2005, the people had voted for the Congress to make his father Bhajan Lal the Chief Minister of the state. It will also silence critics of Hooda who say that his influence was confined to the old Rohtak district and not to the non-Jat belt of the state. Though by winning a seat in the non-Jat belt of the state during the three Assembly byelections held last year, Hooda had answered his critics, the present victory should be a convincing reply to his critics. The party candidates got support from almost all sections of society, cutting across caste lines.

During the campaigning it was obvious that rather than anti-incumbency against the government, the people had still not forgiven the INLD, for its alleged misdeeds when it was in power before 2005.

Former political adviser to Hooda, Prof Virender said the “padyatra” undertaken by INLD secretary-general Ajay Singh Chautala before the Lok Sabha elections did immense good to the Congress. During the “padyatra”, people of the state came across the same faces, towards whom they were allergic. He claimed that the Congress lost Hisar because the voters there gave a “mercy chance” to an old man, contesting perhaps his last election.

Chandigarh, May 16
The Congress proved all pre and post-poll surveys wrong when it won nine of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, the results of which were announced today. In the last Lok Sabha elections also, the Congress had won nine seats.

The only exception was Hisar from where former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal barely managed to keep the flag of his nascent party, the Haryana Janhit Congress, flying when he defeated Sampat Singh of the INLD by a narrow margin of 6,983 votes, the lowest winning margin in the state. Congress nominee Jai Prakash Barwala, sitting MP, was behind Bhajan Lal by 43,937 votes.

Deepender Singh Hooda, son of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, recorded the highest winning margin in the state when he retained his Rohtak seat by a margin of 4,45,736 votes. It is a national record for any sitting MP to win his seat successively with such a high margin. All his rivals, including Nafe Singh Rathee of the INLD, lost their deposits.

The second lowest winning margin in the state was recorded in Ambala from where Union Minister and sitting MP Selja defeated Rattan Lal Kataria of the BJP by 14,570 votes.

The second highest winning margin was in Sonepat where Jatinder Singh Malik of the Congress defeated BJP MP Kishan Singh Sangwan by 1,61,284 votes.

In Sirsa (reserved), the native district of the Chautalas, president of the All-India Youth Congress Ashok Tanwar, who is considered to be Rahul Gandhi’s candidate, defeated Sita Ram of the INLD by 35,499 votes.

Sitting Congress MP from Karnal Arvind Sharma retained his seat by defeating Maratha Virender Verma of the BSP by 76,346 votes. Former Union Minister of State for Home Affairs and BJP nominee ID Swami had to be satisfied with the third position.

Secretary-general of the INLD Ajay Singh Chautala was humbled by first-timer Shruti Choudhry of the Congress, whom he lost to by 55,053 votes. This is second successive defeat of Chautala from this Lok Sabha constituency. In 2004, he was defeated by Kuldeep Bishnoi, who had contested this seat on the Congress ticket.

Union minister Inderjit Singh won the newly constituted seat of Gurgaon when he defeated Zakir Hussain of the BSP by 84,863 votes.

Avtar Singh Bhadana of the Congress retained his Faridabad seat by defeating Ram Chander Bainda of the BJP by 68,201 votes.

Industrialist-turned-politician Naveen Jindal also retained his Kurukshetra seat for the Congress when he defeated Ashok Arora of the INLD by a margin of 1,18,729 votes.

Of the 210 candidates in the fray, 184 lost their deposits.

Rohtak, May 16
Deepender Singh Hooda, sitting Lok Sabha MP from here, retained his seat in style, with a record margin. He defeated his main rival Nafe Singh Rathi of the INLD by a margin of 4,45,736 votes. This is almost double of the margin he had won with in the last by election held in 2005, when he was elected for the first time by defeating his rival Capt Abhimanyu Singh of the BJP. All 15 opponents of the winner Deepender Singh Hooda lost their security deposits.

As per the final result declared here today, Hooda polled as many as 5,85,016 votes out of the total 8,35,925 valid votes. The nearest rival Nafe Singh Rathi of the INLD got only 1,39,280 votes. Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Raj Kumar Sharma secured 68,210 votes while 20,472 votes were cast in favour of Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) nominee Krishan Murti Hooda.

Deepender Singh Hooda led in all nine assembly constituency segments: Kosli in Rewari district, Beri, Jhajjar (SC), Badli and Bahadurgarh in Jhajjar district and Kalanaur (SC), Rohtak, Garhi Sampla Kiloi and Meham in Rohtak district of the Rohtak parliamentary constituency in the election to the Parliament. A group of enthusiastic party workers, wearing Deepender Singh Hooda’s masks, took out what they described as the victory procession even before the completion of counting of votes.

People of the Rohtak parliamentary constituency have overwhelmingly gone for “development” factor and rejected the narrow, sectarian, casteist politics as well as the unprincipled and opportunistic alliance. This was stated by Congress candidate Deepender Singh Hooda, who scored with perhaps one of highest margin in the state here today.

Deepender Singh acknowledged the support of the people of the constituency with deep gratitude. He dedicated his victory to his grandfather, renowned freedom fighter late Ch Ranbir Singh.

Hisar, May 16
Former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal today described his victory from the Hisar Lok Sabha seat as “a great win” while his son and Haryana Janhit Party (BL) chief Kuldeep Bishnoi commented that his party had become the main opposition party in Haryana as the Indian National Lok Dal and the Bahujan Samaj Party had been routed.

Talking to mediapersons after the declaration of the result, Bhajan Lal uttered just that one-liner. However, Bishnoi said his party had emerged stronger by winning the Hisar seat and that it would pose a stiff challenge to the Congress in the 2010 Assembly polls.

Bishnoi said his father’s win had proved that only two political parties really mattered in Haryana - the Congress and the HJC. He described his father’s victory in the wake of a strong pro-Congress wave in Haryana as an indication of the support the people had extended to him.

Bhajan Lal’s supporters remained on tenterhooks throughout the day as counting of votes progressed. There were several ups and downs. At one stage Bhajan Lal was leading by about 40,000 votes. However, the lead began to taper off and ultimately he was declared winner by a margin of 6,983 votes.

Bhajan Lal’s supporters celebrated by smearing gulal on each other and distributing sweets.

Bhajan Lal defeated his nearest rival Sampat Singh of the INLD-BJP alliance who polled 2,41,493 votes against 2,48,476 polled by Bhajan Lal. Jai Parkash of the Congress, who was seeking to retain the seat for the fourth time, finished third polling 2,04,539 votes.

BSP nominee Ram Dayal Goyal, a greenhorn, polled a surprising 90,277 votes spoiling the party for the Congress nominee.

The result from the Adampur assembly segment is a shocker for Bhajan Lal. He won by a margin of just 14,000-odd votes. In last year’s Assembly bypoll, he had won by more than 28,000 votes. Jai Parkash of Congress polled 24,577 votes, clearly indicating that Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s efforts to make inroads into Bhajan Lal’s pocket borough have yielded unprecedented results.

Sampat Singh won hands down in the Uchana Assembly segment represented by Haryana Finance Minister Birender Singh who was miffed by the denial of the party ticket to him from Sonepat. Sampat Singh polled a whopping 47,181 votes against 22,655 votes polled by Jai Parkash of the Congress. Bhajan lal polled 14,861 votes in this segment. The big loss in the Uchana constituency sealed the fate of the Congress nominee. Uchana is the only Assembly segment of Jind district which is part of the Hisar Lok Sabha seat and Jai Parkash hails from Jind district.

Even in defeat, Sampat Singh, a former Finance Minister, managed to strengthen his position in the INLD as well as the state politics. He emerged as the only INLD nominee who posed a serious challenge to his rivals in Haryana.

Chandigarh, May 16
If the Congress wants to hold early assembly elections in the state, it is the right time to do so. The party has led in 59 assembly segments.

Its main rival, Om Prakash Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal, could lead only in seven assembly segments in the state. At present the party has strength of nine in the house of 90.

Interestingly, the nascent Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) of Kuldeep Bishnoi has performed better than the INLD. The HJC has led in nine assembly segments of Adampur, Hansi, Barwala, Hisar, Nalwa, Bawani Khera, Mahenderagarh, Narnaul and Nangal Chaudhry. The party has one MLA at present, who happens to be Bhajan Lal, winner of the Hisar Lok Sabha seat. Bhajan will have to quit either of the two.

Even the BSP has led in eight segments. The assembly segments, in which the BSP stole a lead over the other parties, are Sadhaura, Nilokheri, Indri, Gharaunda, Sohna, Nuh, Ferozepur Jhirka and Punhana. It has one MLA.

The BJP shares the honour with its alliance partner, the INLD. The saffron party also led in seven assembly segments of Kalka, Naraingarh, Mullana, Yamunanagar, Jind, Hodal and Prithla. The party can console itself as it had won only two seats during the 2005 assembly elections. However, one of its MLAs, Ram Kumar Gautam, resigned from the assembly as well as the party just before the Lok Sabha elections.

The assembly segments in which the INLD registered its supremacy are Uchana Kalan, Narwana, Kalanwali, Ellenabad, Uklana, Narnaund and Nangal Chaudhry. No wonder senior Chautala described the results as “surprising”.

Sonepat, May 16
Congress nominee Jitender Malik emerged victorious by defeating his closest competitor Kishan Singh Sangwan of the BJP by a margin of 1,61,284 votes in the Sonepat constituency.

Malik, who was contesting his first parliamentary elections, lived up to the expectations reposed in him by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who had gone all out to secure the party ticket for him. Malik’s candidature had drawn strong opposition from senior party leader and Haryana Finance Minister Birender Singh, who wanted the party ticket for himself.

Jitender Malik had contested three Assembly elections, first in 1996 as an Independent candidate from Ghanuar which he had lost. He again contested from the same constituency on the Congress ticket and won in 2000. He retained his seat in the 2005 election, while contesting on the Congress ticket.

In this parliamentary elections, Jitender Malik bagged 3,38,795 votes of the 7,12,035 polled here on May 7. His nearest rival and three-time MP from this constituency Kishan Singh Sangwan of the BJP got 1,77,511 votes.

BSP candidate Devraj Dewan did garner a good number of 1,12837 votes for himself, but could not hamper the political prospects of Malik, who went on to win the elections convincingly.

The constituency proved hard for HJC nominee Umesh Sharma, who got 42,400 votes, and Sukhbir Farmana of the NCP, who gathered 12,776 votes. Both entrants lost their security deposits.

For Malik, the highest margin of votes was 40,463 in the Baroda Assembly constituency followed by a lead of 32,119 votes in the Kharkhoda segment. His vote count was 26,727 more in Gohana and 17, 066 in Sonepat as compared to his closest rival. In the Ganaur constituency, he lead by 16,678 votes and in Rai, he was ahead by 14,471.

The Congress has won from the Sonepat constituency after a gap of 18 years. Last time, it was Dharampal Malik of the Congress who was elected from here in 1991 to the Lok Sabha.

Sirsa, May 16
Ashok Tanwar, president of the Indian Youth Congress, won the Sirsa (reserved) parliamentary seat by defeating Sita Ram of the Indian National Lok Dal by a margin of over 35,000 votes.

Tanwar polled 4,11,624 votes against 3,76,499 votes polled by Sita Ram. All others except Tanwar and Sita Ram lost their security deposits.

Rajesh Vaid of the BSP finished a poor third with 75,276 votes, while Rajinder Dhanak of the HJC (BL) received 45,235 votes.

Tanwar’s victory is significant due to the fact that it was right in the citadel of INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala as well as HJC (BL) patron Bhajan Lal.

Chautala’s ancestral village Chautala in the Dabwali Assembly segment and Bhajan Lal’s ancestral village Mohammad Pur Rohi in the Fatehabad Assembly seat fall under the Sirsa parliamentary constituency and Tanwar won both from Dabwali as well as from Fatehabad.

Ashok Tanwar’s victory is also significant due to the fact that he was one of those candidates who were handpicked by AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi himself and the young scion of Gandhi family had visited Sirsa to campaign for him.

Tanwar attributed his victory to the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi’s inspiration and the strength of the organisation at the national, state and the local level.

“The victory from Sirsa brings in me a sense of responsibility to live up to the expectations of people, who have voted for me,” Tanwar told The Tribune soon after the announcement of his victory.

He said he would strive hard to bring central grants for Sirsa for development in the fields of education, health, agriculture and industry. Later, the newly elected MP went in a victory procession to the town, where he was greeted by people.

Gurgaon, May 16
Rao Inderjeet Singh, who won the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat by a comfortable margin of 84,864 votes, has attributed his victory to the people’s support and their faith in the policies of the Congress.

“It’s a victory of the people,” said a beaming Inderjeet while talking to newspersons after the release of poll result here today.

The Congress candidate, who got 2,78,516 votes, defeated his nearest rival Zakir Hussain of the BSP, who got 1,93,652 votes. Dr Sudha Yadav of the BJP received 1,25,837, while Rao Narbir of the HJC got 1,17,260.

Asked about his priorities, Rao Inderjeet asserted that provision for a rail link to Mewat and adequate medical and educational facilities there, besides ensuring that the local youth got their due share in jobs would be on the top of his priority list.

“We’ll start with speedy completion of the developmental projects, the foundations for which have already been laid,” he maintained.

Asked about action against the Congress members working against the interests of the party, the sitting MP and Union Minister of State for Defence Production said the party high command was aware of everything and would take appropriate action in this regard.

While Rao Inderjeet’s supporters were upbeat over his convincing win, a pall of gloom descended on the camps of the rival candidates who lost the election.

The major candidates in the fray against Rao Inderjeet, including Zakir Hussain of the BSP, Rao Narbir Singh of the HJC and Dr Sudha Yadav of the BJP, have cried foul over the practices adopted by the Congress and its nominee.

The rival party candidates and members alleged that the Congress candidate had reached some secret understanding with the INLD, due to which an overnight swing of votes took place in favour of the Congress.

Bhiwani, May 16
Indian National Congress candidate and first-timer Shruti Choudhry defeated her nearest rival INLD candidate Ajay Singh Chautala with a margin of 55,053 votes in the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh Lok Sabha seat. Shruti maintained her upward graph from the very first round which started at 8 am today.

Though in first three phases Shruti registered a nominal margin in three assembly segments of Narnaul, Nangal Choudhry and Ateli, soon she recovered this margin from Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, Loharu, Badhra and Tosham.

In the counting rounds the voters of Narnaul, Ateli and Nangal Choudhry were finding Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) candidate Rao Narender Singh emerging as a winning candidate, but when news of his legging behind spread they accepted his rout from 8th round.

INLD candidate Ajay Singh Chautala got 2,47,240 votes while HJC candidate Rao Narender Singh 2,14,141 and BSP candidate Vikram Singh got 59,071 votes.

Chandigarh, May 16
Industrialist-cum-sportsperson-turned politician Naveen Jindal was suitably rewarded by his electorate in Kurukshetra when he retained the seat for the Congress by an impressive margin of 1,18,729 votes.

While he polled 3,97,204 votes, his nearest rival Ashok Arora of the INLD got 2,78,475 votes. Arora was defeated even from his old assembly constituency of Thanesar by over 7,600 votes. In fact, Jindal led in all nine assembly segments of his parliamentary constituency, including Kalayat which was included in Kurukshetra after the delimitation and about which the people had doubts whether it would support Jindal as the area was once considered to be a stronghold of the INLD.

Though being busy with his industrial and sports activities Jindal was not always available physically in Kurukshetra, he ensured that in his absence his men gave “shagun” at every marriage he was invited to in the constituency. Not only that he also launched several social service projects in the constituency through an organisation formed in memory of his late father OP Jindal, who himself was an MP from Kurukshetra.

Through OP Jindal Gramin Jan Kalyan Sansthan Naveen spent about Rs 50 crore on projects like free health camps, free medicines, scholarships to poor students, financial help to the poor for marrying their daughters and educating their children, free eye operations, free spectacles, free medical vans and skill upgrading programmes for the youth. So much so, many called their relatives from the adjoining Punjab areas to undergo cataract operations courtesy Jindal. Money for these projects did not come from the MP Local Area Development Fund sanctioned by the government but from his own sources.

Faridabad, May 16
The Congress has retained the Faridabad parliamentary constituency as its sitting MP Avtar Singh Bhadana has won again defeating his nearest rival BJP candidate Ramchander Bainda by a margin of over 68,000 votes.

Bhadana secured 2,57,864 votes and the BJP nominee got 1,89,663 votes.

The BSP, which had fielded former star of the Indian cricket team Chetan Sharma, stood third securing about 1,13,000 votes. The nominee of the Haryana Janhhit Congress (BL) mustered about 31,000 votes.

Bhadana credited his win to the performance of the UPA government led by Dr Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the performance of the Congress government in Haryana in the four years of its rule.

The Congress camp had a festive atmosphere with firecrackers rending the air in celebration of the poll victory here.

Chandigarh, May 16
A youthful brigade will represent Haryana in the Lok Sabha with under-40 candidates emerging winners at five of the 10 seats in the state of which three are first-timers. Also, perhaps for the first time, in a mandate that has seen greater youth participation, Haryana is sending back two women parliamentarians from the state.

Congress candidate from Rohtak and the youngest of the lot Deepinder Singh Hooda, all of 31, has retained his seat with a record margin of over 4.45 lakh votes. This despite the fact that he took time off to campaign for other candidates fielded by the party all over the state.

While laboriously nurturing his constituency has brought in rich dividends in the form of votes at poll time, this youngster is not one to rest on past laurels. Hooda junior is certain about one goal he has set for himself, “development in my constituency will continue full steam,” he remarks.

First-timer Shruti Choudhry (33), fielded from the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh seat by the Congress, was fighting to save a family’s legacy, that of Choudhry Bansi Lal. “INLD’s Ajay Chautala was only another rival for me and never a challenge despite his veteran status. My only agenda now would be to help bring back the sheen Bhiwani has lost in the past few years and take it back right on top,” she said after her triumph.

If Shruti is a first-time MP, Selja is a veteran hand in politics. Retaining the Ambala seat despite the infighting that marred her campaigning, she has her own quiet way of dealing with “games played in the shadows,”she insists.

Another first-time and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s protégé, Jitender Malik (39), who won from the Sonepat seat, says he will follow the “leader’s footsteps”. Malik adds, “The Chief Minister has ushered in an era of development. I think being available to the people in times of their needs counts most. My agenda for my constituency is this and no more.”

Ashok Tanwar (33), battling the “outsider” tag during campaigning, won from Sirsa on a Congress ticket. He, too, has been harping on developing this neglected seat. In Kurukshetra, too, Congress candidate Naveen Jindal (39) has won the battle against nearest rival INLD’s Ashok Arora.

Karnal, May 16
Sitting Congress MP Arvind Sharma retained the Karnal Lok Sabha seat defeating his nearest rival Varinder Singh Maratha (BSP) by a reduced margin of 76,346 votes. Sharma polled 3,04,698 votes against 2,28,352 votes by Maratha while ID Swami of the INLD-BJP combine finished a poor third polling 1,85,437 votes.

Sharma had won the 2004 elections by a huge margin of 1,64,762 votes in spite of the fact that the Congress rebel, Kuldeep Sharma, was also in the fray but Maratha not only made the contest triangular but also pushed Swami to the third position.

Maratha was ahead of Arvind Sharma in Karnal district by 14,513 votes and had a huge lead in the Gharaunda, Nilokheri and Indri Assembly segments but Panipat came to his rescue and he got an impressive lead in all four Assembly segments.

Sharma got a huge lead of 62,553 votes over Maratha in Panipat district with the Samalkha Assembly segment accounting for the highest lead of 28,262 votes followed by Panipat-Rural (13,074), Panipat-City (11,646) and Israna (9,571). Ramesh Chhabra of the HJC polled 49,226 votes and was among 20 candidates who lost their security deposits.