Rao beats Raj in Gurgaon thriller

Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram, June 4

The Gurgaon constituency comprising nine Assembly segments saw one of the most dramatic political battles of the state where Ahir starwalt BJP leader Rao Inderjit Singh emerged winner. Inderjit with this victory has become the only Haryana leader to be a six-time MP. He won against Congress candidate Raj Babbar.

This was his fourth consecutive win in the constituency and despite pre-poll announcements by the BJP, it surely was not an easy win. Five-time MP senior Congress leader Raj Babbar gave a tough fight to Singh, while leading in initial rounds of voting. The fight remained neck and neck till the evening. However, Inderjit managed to defeat Babbar by a margin of 75,079 votes. Out of a total of 15,96,251 votes, Rao managed to get around 50 per cent votes while Babbar closely trailed by 45 per cent votes.

“We are happy that people have again shown confidence in us. We knew that we had done development work and people would vote for it. I am thankful to all supporters and voters and promise a more rewarding and better term in the next five years. At the moment, we are celebrating the political record of being the only leader in Haryana to go to Parliament for six times and this is also our fourth consecutive win from Gurgaon. We are humbled by the faith people have shown in us,” read a statement issued by Singh after his victory.

Though unable to win, Raj Babbar did leave an unforgettable mark in the state politics by being a debudant and giving the toughest fight to one of the strongest contender of the BJP. A five-time MP himself, Raj Babbar had been written off by the BJP as an outsider trying to fight the Lok Sabha elections like a councillor. However, he managed to strike a chord in the short campaigning of around 20 days. The fight is being cited as his political resurrection.

“I am humbled by the love I got in the short span of time. The trends show that people want their basic issues to be addressed and their representative to be more available and attentive. If my fight manages to get the message through, I am already a winner,” said Babbar.

While Rao Inderjit led in all Assembly segments, three Assembly segments in Nuh district have rejected the BJP yet again. Babbar led the meo-Muslim-dominated district by over 2.5 lakh votes. However, a major shocker came from the Sohna Assembly segment, which is the BJP’s stronghold and constituency of state minister Sanjay Singh which gave a meagre lead of 5,000 to Rao Inderjit. The battle of Gurgaon has surely put the BJP in a review mode for the Assembly segments.

Will work harder

I am thankful to all supporters and voters and promise a more rewarding and better term in the next five years. — Rao Inderjit Singh