Unexpected poll result in Panipat City shocks Cong

With the election din over with the announcement of results, some candidates are still pondering over the surprise wins and losses. BJP’s Pramod Vij won the election from the Panipat City Assembly constituency, the results shocked not only the Congress candidate Varinder Kumar Shah, famous as Bulle Shah, but also shocked the former BJP MLA and Congress rebel Rohita Rewri, who contested the election as an Independent.

As per detailed results, the Congress won only in six polling stations while the Independent got more votes from the BJP candidate only on five polling booths out of a total of 211 polling stations in the Panipat City Assembly constituency.

BJP’s Pramod Vij defeated Congress’ Varinder Kumar Shah by 35,672 votes. He has been elected MLA from Panipat City consecutively for the second time. He received 81,750 votes while Shah received only 46,078 votes. He had won the 2019 polls by 39,545 votes by defeating Congress candidate Sanjay Aggarwal. Vij got 76,863 votes in 2019 polls while the Congress candidate Sanjay Aggarwal polled only 37,318 votes.

In 2014 Assembly polls, the then BJP candidate Rohita Rewri defeated Varinder Kumar Shah with a margin of 53,721 votes. Rohita got 92,757 votes and Varinder Kumar Shah had received only 39,036 votes. The political pundits saw the contest as a triangular contest. However, the results shocked the Congress and the Independent candidate as the BJP started getting victory from the first round and maintained it till the last round of counting. According to detailed results, the BJP got victory on a total 205 polling booths out of a total 211 polling booths while the Congress got more votes only at six booths and the Independent got more votes only on five booths in comparison to the BJP.

Sanjeev Chaudhary, former general secretary, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) said, “The result was very unexpected and shocking for us. There was an anti-incumbency wave against the ruling party due to property IDs, PPPs and other portals of the government and scores of BJP leaders including former municipal councilors (MCs) had joined the Congress”.

“We had worked very hard in the city and we were hoping that we would get a big lead in Kaccha Camp, Gurunanak Pura, Azad Nagar, Vikas Nagar, Raj Nagar in the city, but we have been defeated in almost all the booths,” Chaudhary added. “The silence of voters, over-excitement of the party workers, lack of organisational structure at the grassroots and mismanagement during the election were the basic reasons behind the defeat,” Chaudhary maintained. “However, we have been analysing the detailed results area wise so that we can evaluate the reasons behind the defeat,” he added.