BJP takes Gurgaon 4-0 with 49% vote share

Gurgaon: Waterlogging to waste, the city's festering civic problems did not show up in the assembly poll results on Tuesday, with BJP improving its tally from 3-1 in 2019 to a whitewash this time in the four assembly seats that are part of Gurgaon district.
In doing so, BJP not only wrested Badshapur, the largest constituency in Haryana which is also the main city seat, it also bagged 49% of the district's vote share, eight percentage points more than what it polled in 2019.BJP had also won Gurgaon 4-0 in 2014 when it formed the govt in Haryana for the first time.
Congress managed to increase its vote share from just 8.5% in 2019 to 26.7% this time, but couldn't make a dent. Its Gurgaon candidate, in fact, finished third, behind a BJP rebel who contested as an Independent.
In Badshapur — where the lack of civic infrastructure pinched the most — BJP heavyweight Rao Narbir Singh managed 1.4 lakh votes. He trumped Congress rival Vardhan Yadav by 60,705 votes.
Badshapur, which had voted for Independent candidate Rakesh Daultabad in 2019, did not show the same support for his wife Kumudini Daultabad, who joined the election fray after the death of her husband earlier this year. Kumudini managed the third place — with 30,885 votes. Congress, which received just 10,610 votes in Badshapur in 2019, jumped to 84,798 votes, but debutant Vardhan Yadav still ended up a distant second.
For Congress, the contest was very different from that in the Lok Sabha polls merely four months ago, when it wrested five of 10 seats from BJP. In Gurgaon then, Congress's Raj Babbar ran Rao Inderjit Singh of BJP close, giving the party ample hope for the assembly election.
But it ended in disappointment.
In the Gurgaon assembly seat, Congress was pushed to the third place. Mukesh Sharma of BJP received 1.2 lakh votes, defeating Independent candidate and party rebel Naveen Goel by 68,045 votes. Congress's Mohit Grover managed 46,947 votes.
In Gurgaon, too, Congress doubled its vote share. The party garnered around 20,000 votes in the past state polls in 2019 and 2014.
According to analysts, both BJP and Congress would have had higher numbers were it not for Goel, who secured 54,570 votes. In the run-up to the polls, Goel was a major cause for concern for BJP, which feared a considerable dent to its vote share from him.
BJP's victory margin in Gurgaon seat was the highest among all four constituencies in the district.
In Pataudi, Bimla Chaudhary of BJP received 98,519 votes and trumped her nearest rival — Congress's Pearl Choudhary — by 46,530 votes. Bimla took the lead from the morning itself, with the margin growing wider as the day progressed.
Pearl secured 51,989 votes, nearly three times what the Congress candidate secured in 2019 (18,994).
In Sohna, political analysts had given Congress the upper hand during campaigning. But the results ended in favour of BJP here too, with Tejpal Tanwar defeating Congress rival Rohtas Khatana by 11,817 votes.
Sohna witnessed a multi-corner contest, which is believed to have helped BJP. Kalyan Singh, who contested as an independent after being denied a BJP ticket, received 21,703 votes and cut into the party's votes.
But independent candidate Javed Ahmed (49,171) and BSP's Sunder Bhadana (15,454) are believed to have cut in Congress votes and helped BJP's cause. Congress, in Sohna, was at number 4 in 2019.