Chandigarh: International wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, the BJP-JJP combine candidate, lost to Congress’ Induraj Narwal by over 9,200 votes in the bypolls for the Baroda seat in Haryana.
This is the second defeat for the Olympian from this seat. Dutt had lost to Congress veteran Krishan Hooda in the assembly polls held last October. Hooda had then won the seat for the third time in a row. The bypoll was necessitated following Hooda’s death in April this year.
The election was held on 3 November.
This was the ruling BJP-JJP combine’s first electoral test after the NDA brought in the three farm laws, which are being vehemently opposed by a section of farmers in Haryana.
Baroda, in Sonepat district, is one of the few purely rural seats in Haryana’s Jat heartland where the impact of the farm laws has been felt immensely.
In a statement issued after the results, state Congress chief Kumari Selja termed the Baroda win as the victory of the farmers against an “anti-farmer regime”.
बरोदा की जनता ने किसान-मजदूर विरोधी ताकतों को अपने फैसले से करारा जवाब दिया है।
भाई इंदुराज नरवाल की जीत किसानों और मजदूरों की जीत है।
बरोदावासियों को मैं विश्वास दिलाती हूँ कांग्रेस पार्टी आपके विश्वास पर खरी उतरेगी।#BarodaByElectionResult #BarodaBypoll
— Kumari Selja (@kumari_selja) November 10, 2020
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Congress’ impressive show
The Congress performance on the seat has been impressive.
The party got 57,400 votes, almost 15,000 votes more than it polled in the assembly elections last year. The Congress had got a little over 42,500 votes in 2019, while the BJP had polled over 37,700 votes and the JJP candidate 32,500 votes. However this time, the total of the BJP-JJP votes did not go to Dutt’s kitty who managed to poll a little over 48,000 votes.
The BJP-JJP combine, as a result, has lost almost 22,000 votes in this election, indicating antipathy of the farming community towards both parties.
The BJP’s experiment of fielding a non-Jat candidate on a Jat-centric seat has also failed. Dutt, a Brahmin, found it difficult to make inroads in the closely knit Jat groupings in the area.
Congress candidate Narwal is a Jat and was largely supported by the community.
Credit to Bhupinder Singh Hooda
The credit of this victory also goes to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the leader of the opposition who ensured that the Jat vote doesn’t get divided.
Former Indian National Lok Dal leader from Baroda, Kapoor Singh Narwal, who had joined the BJP ahead of the assembly elections last year in the hope of getting a ticket from Baroda, turned rebel a few months ago and joined the Congress. He was hoping to be made the Congress candidate from Baroda.
However, despite Hooda’s assurance to Kapoor, the party high command did not agree to his candidature. Peeved at the treatment, Kapoor declared himself an independent candidate. However, Hooda managed to convince him to withdraw his nomination in favour of the Congress candidate.
Reacting to the result, Hooda tweeted saying the victory is of Baroda’s 36 biradari, farmers, labourers, employees and small traders.
आम किसान के बेटे इंदुराज नरवाल को जीत की बधाई। ये बरोदा की 36 बिरादरी, हरियाणा के किसान, मजदूर, कर्मचारी और छोटे कारोबारी की अपनी जीत है। BJP+JJP सरकार से जनता का मोहभंग हो चुका है और लोगों ने अविश्वास पारित कर दिया है।
बदलाव की ये लहर पूरे हरियाणा से होते हुए चंडीगढ़ तक जाएगी। pic.twitter.com/3ZCb6Rq1oP— Bhupinder S Hooda (@BhupinderSHooda) November 10, 2020
INLD candidate Joginder Singh Malik polled less than 5,000 votes, showing Jats are continuing to reject the INLD after the JJP broke away from it in 2018 following an ugly implosion in the Chautala family.
Rajkumar Saini, the BJP rebel MP who had formed the Loktantra Suraksha Party last year, contested the polls with an eye on the non-Jat backward class vote bank. He polled over 5,300 votes, cutting into the BJP vote bank.
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