Chandigarh: Eight Haryana ministers lost the assembly elections, which saw just two of the 10 ministers fielded by the ruling BJP returning to the state assembly.
Cabinet minister and five-time MLA Anil Vij retained his traditional bastion of Ambala Cantonment, whereas minister of state Dr Banwari Lal emerged victorious from Bawal.
Vij drubbed Congress rebel Chitra Sarwara, who fought as independent, by over 20,000 votes.
Dr Lal retained Bawal, defeating Dr M L Ranga by over 32,000 votes.
The minister who lost the elections are Ram Bilas Sharma (Mahendragarh), Capt Abhimanyu (Narnaund), Om Prakash Dhankar (Badli), Kavita Jain (Sonipat), Krishan Lal Panwar (Israna), Manish Kumar Grover (Rohtak), Krishan Kumar Bedi (Shahbad), and Karan Dev Kamboj (Radaur).
The BJP had earlier denied tickets to two of its ministers-Vipul Goel and Rao Narbir Singh.
The saffron party’s idea of shifting minister Karan Dev Kamboj from Indri to Raduar also failed to yield positive results.
Khattar retained his Karnal constituency.
Grover and Kamboj lost to their rivals by just over 2,000 votes, whereas other ministers faced defeat by over 10,000 votes.
Lone woman minister in the Khattar cabinet, Kavita Jain, a three-time MLA, lost her traditional Sonipat seat to Surender Panwar of the Congress by a margin of over 32,000 votes.
Among the other prominent faces for the ruling BJP who tasted defeat in the elections was its state president Subhash Barala.
He lost the contest from Tohana to Jannayak Janta Party candidate Devender Singh by a huge margin of 52,302 votes.
BJP’s Prem Lata, the wife of former Union minister and prominent Jat leader Birender Singh, was defeated by JJP leader Dushyant Chautala by 47,452 votes from Uchana Kalan.
The opposition Congress witnessed a major upset in Kaithal, where senior party leader Randeep Singh Surjewala lost to BJP’s Leela Ram.
The three-time legislator and Congress Party’s chief spokesperson was defeated by a margin of 1,246 votes. It was a second blow to Surjewala, who had tasted defeat in the Jind byelections early this year.
Congress candidate and former Haryana Assembly speaker Kuldeep Sharma also faced defeat at the hands of BJP nominee Nirmal Rani from Ganaur.
Sharma was defeated with a margin of over 10,000 votes.
Former BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra’s defeat was another setback for the party. He lost to JJP’s Naina Chauatla from Badhra with a margin of over 13,000 votes.
Senior Congress leaders Karan Dalal and Anand Singh Dangi also faced defeat.
While Dalal was trounced by BJP candidate Deepak Mangla from Palwal, Dangi lost to independent candidate Balraj Kundu from Meham.
Congress candidate Ashok Arora, who switched over from the INLD before the polls, was defeated by BJP’s Subhash Sudha from Thanesar.
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