Two of 3 turncoats fielded by BJP in Haryana bite the dust

Deepender Deswal

Hisar, June 5

The BJP’s ploy to field three turncoats – Independent MLA Ranjit Singh from Hisar and former Congress MP from Sirsa Ashok Tanwar — at the last moment failed to yield results as both candidates lost the elections. According to party sources, the new entrants could not adapt to the BJP’s culture, which resulted in several issues during the electioneering.

The third candidate, former Congress MP Naveen Jindal, won from the Kurukshetra seat for the saffron party.

Singh had won the 2019 Assembly elections as an Independent from the Rania Assembly constituency in Sirsa. Later, he extended support to the saffron party and served as the Energy Minister. Jindal had taken a hiatus from politics after he lost the 2014 Lok Sabha poll as a Congress candidate. Both Singh and Jindal had simultaneously joined the BJP in Sirsa and Delhi, respectively on March 24 and were instantly declared the party candidates.

Singh, who is the son of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, lost the poll by 63,381 votes to the Congress’ Jai Prakash. In a press conference, Singh said he would write a letter to the party leadership about the “role” of some party leaders in Hisar during the campaign.

Meanwhile, in Sirsa, Ashok Tanwar even proved worse for the party as he lost by the second highest margin (after Rohtak) to the Congress candidate and former Union Minister, Kumari Selja. Selja defeated Tanwar by a margin of 2,68,497 votes.

Tanwar, too, has pointed fingers at government employees and some party leaders in Sirsa. However, he later retracted from his statements regarding the party workers. However, it was evident from the campaign that he was unable to gel with the party workers. Tanwar’s old rivalry with Sirsa MLA Gopal Kanda, too, came as a handicap in the smooth campaigning process even though both leaders tried to show off their new-found friendship among people.

According to political experts, Jindal, the third of the turncoat, however, managed to scrape through by a thin margin of 22,021 votes over his nearest rival AAP candidate Sushil Gupta. “Jindal got a blessing in disguise in INLD candidate Abhay Singh Chautala, who secured about 78,000 votes, which is stated to be a loss for the AAP leader, who was a joint candidate of the INDIA bloc,” an expert said.

Bahus’ blow to Ranjit Singh?

Was it the performance of Chautala “bahus” that spoiled the chances of their father-in-law Ranjit Singh (Devi Lal’s son) of BJP of winning the elections in the Hisar Lok Sabha constituency. He lost to Congress’ Jai Prakash by 63,381 votes. Both Chautala “bahus” — JJP candidate Naina Chautala (wife of Ajay Chautala) and INLD nominee Sunaina Chautala (wife of Ravi Chautala) secured a total of 44,335 votes. Sunaina polled 22,303 votes while Naina got 22,032 votes. Thus, people calculated that their collective votes could have inflicted a body blow to Singh’s prospects in the elections. Ranjit and his two “bahus” had reached out to the voters by staking the claim for the legacy of Devi Lal. Interestingly, Sunaina edged past Naina in the number game as the former got 271 more votes than the latter, who is the mother of former Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala.