Zeenews Bureau
Hisar: In one of the most keenly watched by-election in recent times, Kuldeep Bishnoi of the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) emerged victorious in the Hisar Lok Sabha bypoll on Monday. As per the results declared, Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD) Ajay Chautala finished second, while Congress candidate Jai Prakash came in third and even lost his security deposit.
According to the official results available, Bishnoi, son of Haryana political stalwart late Bajan Lal, beat his nearest rival by a margin of 6,323 votes.
Jai Prakash of Congress, against whom Team Anna had campaigned, secured lesser votes as compared to the party’s performance in the Lok Sabha polls in 2009 – some estimates put the Congress’ vote share at half of what it secured in 2009.
As per results, Bishnoi polled 3,55,941 votes, Chautala 3,49,618 votes and Jai Prakash was a distant third with 1,49,785 votes.
The bypoll had become a national focus after the Anna factor raised the stakes for the Congress in a triangular fight.
Anna Hazare and his team had campaigned against the Congress in the run-up to the bypoll, to press the national party on their demand for a strong Lokpal.
In all there were 40 candidates, mostly independents, in the fray.
The bypoll held on October 13 had witnessed a turnout of nearly 69 per cent. The polling was necessitated due to the death of sitting MP Bhajan Lal of Haryana Janhit Congress in June.
Meanwhile reactions related to the Hisar polls have been pouring in. The party general secretary in-charge for Haryana BK
Hariprasad said the defeat in the constituency was "not
unexpected" given the fact that in the last parliamentary
elections too, Congress had secured third position.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj thanked
people of Haryana, particularly the electorate of Hisar, for
supporting the BJP-HJC alliance and electing Bishnoi. "The
BJP-HJC alliance will continue in future also," she said.
Echoing her words, Bishnoi said, "people have voted for
the alliance and alliance will go a long way."
Thanking the voters, Bishnoi said that Hisar had been
traditional seat won by a member of his family. "The win is
basically because of my father and family's track record. We
have done a lot for Hisar," he said.
BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi said the result clearly
showed that tyhe people have voted against the Congress
policies in tackling corruption. "This is a victory for
democracy," he said.
On the other hand, Union Finance Minister and senior Congress leader Pranab
Mukherjee said, "a loss in any election is a sad thing. We
shall have to analyse why we lost the bypolls and what are the
reasons."
But Union Corporate Affairs minister M Veerappa Moily said, "You should know if the Anna appeal acted but I don't want to comment on an individual," the Congress leader told reporters on the sidelines of a programme here.”
He said the big question was if Anna's cause would be promoted by the result of the bypoll.
Moily said the electorate of the constituency had
given their verdict on the basis of issues they knew best.
Team Anna member Kiran Bedi said "This is voters verdict.
Team Anna all along made the voters aware of the party
position concerning the Lokpal Bill. It claims no credit for
anything, for that was not the objective.”
Speaking in Banda, Kejriwal asserted, "Our team is in no
way involved in the defeat or victory of any political
party.... the campaign was against corruption".
He also Team Anna was in no way connected to any political
party and its campaign would continue till the Jan Lokpal bill
was passed.
With PTI inputs
First Published: Monday, October 17, 2011, 08:05