Gurugram: The Bhajan Lal family has lost its bastion — the Adampur assembly seat in Haryana — in this election after holding the seat for 56 long years. Eleven of the 15 family members belonging to the dynasties of Haryana’s three famous Lals — Bhajan Lal, Devi Lal, and Bansi Lal — also lost the seats they contested.
Bhajan Lal’s grandson Bhavya Bishnoi suffered a narrow defeat in Hisar’s Adampur Tuesday. The family has held the seat for 56 years since Bhajan Lal first won it in 1968 as someone or the other from the family went on to win 13 more elections. Bhavya’s defeat has emerged as the biggest shocker in political circles in Haryana.
In 1968, Bhajan Lal won Adampur on a Congress ticket by defeating Independent Balraj Singh. He won the seat as a Congress candidate in 1972 again, this time by defeating another politically influential Lal — Devi Lal — who contested as an Independent.
In 1977, Bhajan Lal won Adampur as the Janata Party (JP) candidate and went on to topple Devi Lal’s JP government and become CM himself in 1979. After Indira Gandhi’s victory in the midterm polls in 1980, Bhajan Lal walked over to the Congress with his entire ministry.
In 1982, Bhajan Lal — now with Congress again — won Adampur by defeating Narsingh Bishnoi of the Lok Dal.
Bhajan Lal remained the Haryana CM till 1986, when the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi replaced him with Bansi Lal. Then, Rajiv Gandhi inducted Bhajan Lal into his Union Cabinet as the agriculture minister, a position Bhajan Lal held till the next general elections in 1989.
In the 1987 Haryana assembly elections, Bhajan Lal fielded his wife, Jasma Devi, from Adampur as the Congress candidate. His two sons had not attained the age of contesting elections. In that election, the Congress was reduced to just five seats amid a strong wave in favour of Devi Lal, and Jasma Devi was one of the five elected.
Bhajan Lal won the Adampur seat again in 1991 and re-emerged as the CM, a position he held till the next election in 1996. He won from Adampur in 1996, 2000, and 2005.
In 2007, Bhajan Lal and his son Kuldeep Bishnoi launched their party, the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), after the Congress leadership decided to appoint Bhupinder Singh Hooda as CM while ignoring Bhajan Lal’s claim.
In the Lok Sabha polls held in 2009, Bhajan Lal was elected to the Lok Sabha from Hisar as an HJC nominee. He fielded his son from the Adampur assembly seat, which Kuldeep Bishnoi won.
After Bhajan Lal died in 2011, Kuldeep Bishnoi went to the Lok Sabha after winning the by-election. In the bypoll for the Adampur assembly seat — held in the same year — Kuldeep Bishnoi’s wife, Renuka Bishnoi, emerged as the winner.
Kuldeep Bishnoi won from Adampur in 2014 and 2019 but resigned as MLA when he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2022. He fielded his son, Bhavya Bishnoi, in the Adampur by-election and kept the seat in the family when Bhavya won.
However, on Tuesday, Bhavya Bishnoi lost the seat to Congress candidate Chander Parkash, a retired IAS officer.
Later, Bhavya posted a video message on X, showing him standing with his father, Kuldeep Bishnoi, and expressing gratitude for his family and those who worked on his campaign.
“I express my gratitude to the people of my family and all the workers of the Adampur constituency who worked tirelessly in this election. Wins and losses are a part of elections. I do not need any position to serve you. I assure you that, just like the past 56 years, I will continue to serve Adampur like a family in the future as well,” Bhavya Bishnoi said.
Kuldeep Bishnoi reposted Bhavya’s message.
On Wednesday, Kuldeep Bishnoi addressed his supporters outside his family’s ancestral grain market shop in Adampur, but he could hardly speak. A video showing Kuldeep Bishnoi breaking down, and his wife, Renuka Bishnoi, trying to console him has since gone viral.
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Why the Bhajan Lal clan lost its 56-yr-old bastion
Parkash is the nephew of Ramji Lal, who was considered a close friend of Bhavya’s grandfather. Bhajan Lal helped Ramji Lal become a member of the Rajya Sabha twice during his tenure as Haryana CM.
The Congress strategically gave its ticket to a person who, for years, remained close to the Bishnoi family. In the close contest that ensued, Bhavya Bishnoi lost by a mere 1,768 votes.
The Adampur assembly constituency now has approximately 1.78 lakh voters, with 94,940 men and 93,708 women among them. Jat and OBC voters play a decisive role in this seat. Adampur has the highest number of Jat voters, at nearly 55,000, while 28,000 voters belong to the Bishnoi community. The OBC community has roughly 29,000 votes, with the majority of 8,200 voters from the Jangra and Kumhar castes to which Chander Parkash belongs.
With the Jats largely backing the Congress in this election, the Jat-OBC combination helped the Congress candidate defeat Bhajan Lal’s grandson in his stronghold.
Besides, people from Kuldeep Bishnoi’s community have grown unhappy with him since he has been keeping a distance from the region after winning elections, Subhash Bishnoi, who has been close with the family since 1979, told ThePrint, when asked to comment on the Lal family’s loss in its 57-year-old bastion.
“Initially, Kuldeep Bishnoi used to keep a connection with the people. But now, he comes during elections only and does not even respond to people’s calls,” Subhash Bishnoi said.
Discussing the contrast with the old days, Subhash Bishnoi said, “I met Bhajan Lal ji in Chandigarh in 1979. He did not know me. I told him I was thinking of holding a ‘jagran of devi maa’ in case he (Bhajan Lal) became the CM. He promised to come. I fixed the date and met him to give the invite. Later, when I went to Gobind Rai Batra, the local MLA at my place in Fatehabad, he was surprised to hear that the CM would attend the jagran. But Bhajan Lal ji kept his word. Such was his connection with his people.”
Later, Bhajan Lal appointed Subhash Bishnoi’s wife, Indira Bishnoi, also the daughter of former Rajasthan minister Ram Narain Bishnoi, as a member of the Haryana Agriculture University’s management board.
In this assembly election, while Bhavya lost from Adampur, his uncle and Kuldeep Bishnoi’s cousin Dura Ram lost to Congress candidate Balwan Singh Daulatpuria in Fatehabad.
However, this election marked the rehabilitation of Bhajan Lal’s elder son, Chander Mohan. An extramarital affair, followed by his conversion to Islam to get married again, had marred his political trajectory. After two decades, Mohan has emerged from the shadows, clinching the Panchkula seat by defeating Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta.
7 out of 9 from the Devi Lal clan lose
Nine from former deputy PM Devi Lal’s family contested the assembly election this time. Of them, seven have lost.
However, Abhay Chautala’s son Arjun Chautala won from Rania (Sirsa). Devi Lal’s grandson and his youngest son Jagdish Chander’s son, Aditya Devilal, won from Dabwali (Sirsa). Both, greenhorns in electoral politics, won as Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidates.
Among the losers are Abhay Chautala (INLD) from Ellenabad, Dushyant Chautala (JJP) from Uchana Kalan and his younger brother Digvijay Chautala (JJP) from Dabwali.
Also, Devi Lal’s nephew K.V. Singh’s son Amit Sihag (Congress) lost from Dabwali, Devi Lal’s son Ranjit Singh (Independent) lost from Rania, and Devi Lal’s son Partap Singh’s daughter-in-law and Ravi Chautala’s wife Sunaina Chautala (INLD) lost from Fatehabad.
Om Parkash Chautala’s daughter Anjali Singh’s son Kunal Karan Singh (INLD) lost in Tohana.
Shruti wins but 2 others from the Bansi Lal clan lose
Former CM Bansi Lal’s granddaughter Shruti Choudhry (BJP) defeated her cousin and Congress candidate Anirudh Chaudhary in Tosham, Bhiwani. Shruti is Surender Singh and Kiran Choudhry’s daughter, and Anirudh is Ranbir Mahindra’s son.
Bansi Lal’s son-in-law Somvir Sheoran, the third member of Bansi Lal’s family in the fray, fought on a Congress ticket from Badhra, Bhiwani, and lost to BJP’s Umed Singh.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also Read: Sweet revenge for Congress’s Chander Mohan as he beats BJP’s Gian Chand by slim margin in Panchkula