CHANDIGARH: Indu Raj Narwal of the Congress party on Tuesday won the high-decibel Baroda assembly bypoll in Sonipat district of Haryana, defeating ace wrestler and BJP’s Yogeshwar Dutt by a margin of 10,566 votes.
All other candidates in the fray lost their deposits and the Congress party retained the seat for the fourth time in a row. A holder of certificate in physical education (C.Ped), Indu Raj Narwal polled 60,636 votes and Yogeshwar Dutt got 5,0070 votes. Narwal has secured 49% and Yogeshwar Dutt could secure only 40.7% of the total votes polled.
However, both the Congress and BJP has improved their performances from October 2019, when Congress candidate Sri Krishan Hooda had registered victory with only 34.67% votes and Dutt could score only 30.73% votes.
The result, however, has come as rude shock for the INLD, as party candidate Joginder Malik finished fourth.
As a majority of voters in Baroda live in rural areas, the result in favour of the Congress highlights the impact of farmers’ grouse in Haryana against the new agriculture laws and reinforces dominance of former CM and Haryana leader of opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s in the area, as the entire byelection was contested by Hooda as a personal contest and the party nominee was a new face.
Coalition govt fails Baroda litmus test
The result is a setback for Haryana’s ruling JJP-BJP alliance as their joint candidate, Dutt could not secure the number of votes, which were registered by their candidates’ in October 2019 general assembly elections, when both the JJP and BJP had contested separately. In the previous election, BJP had secured 37,726 votes and JJP 32,480 votes, adding up to 70,206 votes. However this time, Dutt as joint candidate c of the two parties could only poll 50,000 votes.
The coalition government has also failed in the litmus test as this was the first election jointly contested by BJP-JJP after forming the alliance in October 2019. Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s pro-incumbency factor did not work in the assembly bypoll even as the CM sought votes on the grounds of ‘instant development’. The government had made several announcements, including a promise to spend around Rs 270 crore on various development works in the constituency, creation of an Industrial Model Township (IMT) and a university in the Baroda constituency.
The Baroda bypoll was necessitated following the demise of sitting Congress MLA Sri Krishan Hooda. The tenure of the elected candidate would be for around four years. However, the result of Baroda would not have any impact on the numbers inside the state assembly, as the seat has been retained by Congress.