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New Delhi/Hisar: In a
bruising electoral blow, India's ruling Congress Monday lost the
deposit in the Hisar Lok Sabha by-election in Haryana, where Anna
Hazare campaigned against it, and was also defeated in the three
assembly by-polls in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana.
It was a sorry nought for the Congress, which rules in all the
states barring Bihar. And a moment to savour for the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) with three of the candidates it backed winning
their Oct 13 elections.
In Hisar, the Haryana Janhit Congress' (HJC) Kuldeep Singh Bishnoi
won with 355,541 votes while Ajay Chautala of the Indian National
Lok Dal was 5,923 votes behind. Three-time Congress MP Jai Parkash
finished a poor third with 149,785 votes and forfeited his
security deposit.
In Maharashtra's Khadakwasla assembly, the ruling
Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance lost to the
BJP-Shiv Sena combine. In Andhra Pradesh's Telangana region, the
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) bagged Banswada. In Bihar, the
ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) retained Darounda.
Defeat is always "sad", Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in
the national capital. "We shall have to analyse why we have lost."
The Anna factor was also under debate.
The Hisar seat, which fell vacant in June after three-time chief
minister Bhajan Lal died, was the first time that Team Anna had
actively entered the electoral fray.
But Bishnoi, Bhajan Lal's son who had welcomed the initiative,
said he owed nothing to the anti-corruption crusader.
"I attribute it only to my father and the (alliance with) BJP,"
Bishnoi told reporters in Hisar.
The Congress also underplayed the Anna factor that had propelled
Hisar on the national consciousness. Jai Parkash, who had come
third in the last election as well though he had managed 2.04 lakh
votes, denied that Hazare had anything to do with the result. "The
caste factor undid me," he said.
Congress general secretary B.K. Hari Prasad added that Jai Parkash
lost his deposit because of "sympathy for Kuldeep's father Bhajan
Lal and the development work done by the former chief minister".
"Team Anna is shining on borrowed feather," Hari Prasad told IANS.
As the debate intensified, Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal said:
"We have no enmity with the Congress."
Activist Medha Patkar, however, insisted that the Anna factor had
made an impact and cited Jai Parkash's diminishing vote share to
back her point.
The sympathy factor that the Congress believes played out against
it in Hisar did not work as anticipated in Maharashtra's
Khadakwasla.
The Congress-NCP's gamble of getting the widow of the late
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena legislator Ramesh Wanjale did not pay
off. Harshada Wanjale, the NCP candidate, was unable to get the
sympathy vote and lost to the BJP's Bhimrao Tapkir, who also had
the backing of Shiv Sena.
Wanjale had died three months ago, necessitating the by-poll. The
MNS, which did not put up a candidate as a tribute to Wanjale's
memory, said Harshada Wanjale lost the sympathy of the electorate.
In Andhra Pradesh's Banswada, the TRS rode on the demand for a
separate Telangana and wrested the seat from the Telugu Desam
Party (TDP) by nearly 50,000 votes.
The TDP did not contest in view of the Telangana sentiment but the
Congress soldiered on. P. Srinivas Reddy, the TDP winner of 2009,
was re-elected, this time as the TRS candidate, over S. Srinivas
Goud of the Congress.
In a sense, the only saving grace was Bihar where the Congress is
neither in power nor a main player.
The Darounda assembly seat went to JD-U's Kavita Singh, who
defeated her nearest rival, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), by
over 20,000 votes.
As the Congress counted its losses, the BJP labelled it a "victory
of democracy".
"The results show the people of India have voted against
corruption and the Congress... It indicates which way the
political wind is blowing," he said.
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