In a closely contested battle for all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, the Congress party has made significant gains wrestling five Lok Sabha seats and giving a setback to the ruling BJP, whose tally was down from 10 to five in the State, where the assembly polls are also due later this year. In the 2019 elections, the BJP won all 10 seats in the State. The BJPs vote share has dropped from 58.2 percent in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to 46.11 percent. The Congress, on the other hand, has increased its vote share from 28.42 percent in 2019 to 43.7 percent.  If AAPs vote share is combined, which fought in alliance with Congress, the vote share goes beyond that of BJP. The AAP, contested on one seat, failed to open its account in Haryana with nearly 3.94 percent vote share.    The Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) fielded candidates in all 10 Lok Sabha seats, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) contested from nine seats and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) contested from seven seats. JJP, which was a part of the four and half years of ruling alliance with the BJP till March this year, could not get even 1 percent of vote share this election. Many of the JJP candidates, including Dushyant Chautalas mother Naina Chautala (contesting from Hisar), forfeited their deposits and finished fifth. INLD got a 1.74 percent vote share. The best performance by INLD came from Sirsa where partys candidate Sandeep Valmiki finished third with about 92,000 votes. INLD candidate from Kurukshetra, Abhay Chautala finished third with about 78,000 votes.  If Congress gives such a performance in the upcoming Assembly election, this party would win at least 46-50 out of 90 seats while BJP  40-44 seats.  Thumping wins and close contests For the Congress, Deepender Hooda (polled over 7.78 lakh votes) won Rohtak by a margin of over 3.43 lakh votes, defeating BJPs Arvind Sharma (polled over 4.35 lakh votes) and Kumari Selja won (polled 7.33 lakh votes) in Sirsa by a margin of 2,68,497 votes defeating BJPs Ashok Tanwar (polled 4.65 lakh votes). In Ambala, Varun Chaudhry (polled over 6.63 lakh votes) defeated BJPs Banto Kataria (polled over 6.14 lakh votes) by a margin of over 49,000 votes, while Jai Prakash (polled over 5.70 lakh votes) defeated BJPs Ranjit Singh (polled over 5.07 lakh votes) in Hisar by a margin of 63,381 votes and newcomer Satpal Brahmchari (polled over 5.48 lakh votes) defeated BJPs Mohan Lal Badoli (polled over 5.26 lakh votes) in Sonipat by a margin of 21,816 votes. For the BJP, former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar with over 7.37 lakh votes remained the top scorer, defeating Congresss Divyanshu Buddhiraja (polled over 5.04 lakh votes) in Karnal by a margin of over 2.32 lakh votes. Former Union ministers Krishan Pal Gurjar (polled over 7.8 lakh votes) and Rao Inderjit Singh (polled over 8.05 lakh votes) managed to retain their turf. While Krishan Pal defeated Congress Mahendra Pratap (polled over 61.5 lakh votes) in Faridabad by a margin of 1,72,914 votes, Rao Inderjit defeated Congress Raj Babbar (polled over 7.31 lakh votes) in Gurgaon by a margin of over 73,000 votes. In Kurukshetra, BJPs Naveen Jindal (polled over 5.42 lakh votes) defeated AAPs Sushil Gupta (polled over 5.13 lakh votes) by a margin of 29,021 votes, while BJPs Dharambir (polled over 5.82 lakh votes) defeated Congress Rao Dan Singh (5.41 lakh votes) in Bhiwani-Mahendragarh by a margin of over 40,000 votes. Congresss Kumari Selja and Deepender Hooda maintained a significant lead in their respective constituencies from the first round of counting itself. For the BJP, Manohar Lal Khattar was the only one who maintained a steady lead throughout the counting while Krishan Pal started registering the lead after a few rounds of counting got over. The seats of Kurukshetra and Sonipat witnessed a tight contest since the beginning of the counting. In Gurgaon, while Congresss Raj Babbar maintained a lead over BJPs Rao Inderjit till afternoon, Rao Inderjit began leading towards the evening and eventually emerged victorious. The Lok Sabha results also marked a significant blow to the Chautalas, one prominent political family in Haryana. Four members of the Chautala family were in the fray, including three BJPs Ranjit Singh former deputy prime minister Devi Lals son; JJPs Naina Chautala wife of Devi Lals grandson Ajay Chautala; INLDs Sunaina Chautala wife of Devi Lals grandson Ravi Chautala, and INLDs Abhay Chautala grandson of Devi Lal. While Abhay contested from Kurukshetra, Ranjit, Naina and Sunaina were locked in a battle in the Hisar Lok Sabha seat. None could save their security deposit.  Poll outcome likely to have a direct impact on Assembly polls  The Lok Sabha results clearly showed anti-incumbency for the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP Government of over nine years. BJPs gambit to replace Khattar with Nayab Saini just before the Lok Sabha poll announcement did not pay off. Ideally, the change of face should have been done much earlier. The Congress now has momentum. Since assembly elections will be fought on local issues, the Congress is in the best position to dominate. Observers believe that a big takeaway of the 2024 election is the decimation of Chautalas in the State and the consolidation of peasantry, including the Jats, behind the Congress. This could also signal an era of bipolar politics in the state. The dominant Jat community this time firmly stood behind the Congress to dent the BJP. Bhupinder Hooda accuses BJP of resorting to divisive tactics based on caste and religion Launching a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupeinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday accused the ruling party of resorting to divisive tactics based on caste and religion. Talking to reporters, Hooda commended the people of Haryana for not falling prey to BJPs deceptive strategies. He highlighted the unity of all communities, which voted in unison for the Congress, effectively debunking BJPs ambitious slogan of crossing 400 seats. Hooda emphasized that electoral success is achieved through hard work rather than mere slogans. "The BJPs slogans are losing steam, and the public is making them aware of the ground reality," he remarked. Pointing to the significant improvement in the electoral performance of the Congress, Hooda stated the partys alliance in Haryana received the highest percentage of votes in the country, with 47.61 percent. The former Chief Minister also criticized parties attempting to divide the opposition vote, expressing confidence that voters will continue to reject such tactics. Hooda lamented the current state of Haryana, contrasting it with the progress before 2014. He highlighted that the state was once leading in per capita income, investment, employment generation, and development, now tops the charts in unemployment, crime, corruption, drug addiction, and misery under BJP rule.  

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