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All is well for INLD, BJP in Haryana

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

The Indian National Lok Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party combine is heading for a clear majority in Haryana. It is ahead in 51 constituencies.

But Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala's claim that the alliance would sweep the polls doesn't seem possible. The Congress is doing far better than expected.

Chautala, who contested two assembly constituencies, Rori and Narwana, won both. Though he defeated younger brother Ranjit Singh from Rori by over 22,000 votes, he could defeat Randeep Singh Surjewala of the Congress in Narwana by only a slender margin of some 2,000 votes.

The other prominent winners of the combine include Dr Sita Ram, Professor Sampat Singh from Bhattu Kalan, Shakuntala Sagwan, former minister Kishan Pal Gujjar and Veena Chibber.

The Congress, which had only 11 seats in the last assembly, is likely to win more than 24 constituencies. Former chief minister Bhajan Lal trounced his BJP rival Ganeshi Lal by a margin of over 46,000 votes in Adampur. Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhupinder Singh Hooda also won from the Kiloi seat with a comfortable margin.

One of the major surprises is that despite the fact that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited the state for three days and addressed over a dozen public meetings, the BJP has done miserably. The INLD contested 61 seats; the BJP put up its candidates in the remaining 29 seats. While 80 per cent of the INLD candidates won their seats, only 15 per cent of the BJP candidates came out trumps.

Asked to comment on the poor show of the party, Vajpayee told a private television channel that there was no reason to feel despondent.

"Since the INLD and BJP fought the election on a common platform, the combine will form the government," he said.

A senior BJP party functionary, however, blamed Chautala for organising the defeat of BJP candidates by supporting rebels clandestinely. "We all know that Chautala has worked overtime to ensure the defeat of the BJP candidates," he said.

But Chautala's supporters are not willing to buy this theory. "What can Chautala do if the people of the state do not want to vote for the BJP candidates? The chief minister has not told even a single person to contest against the official BJP candidates. If the BJP leaders believe that INLD rebels have defeated their candidates then they should allow the media to name them," Vineet Punia, political secretary to Chautala, told rediff.com.

Later, Chautala himelf denied the BJP's allegation, saying there was no cause for him to work for his ally's defeat. But in the same breath, he added that the independent candidates who had defeated the BJP nominees had won the election invoking his (Chautala's) name, thus proving that the people of the state had voted for him and not the alliance.

Meanwhile, former Congress chief minister Bhajan Lal is happy. He won his seat with a record margin of 46,000 while his son Chander Mohan won the Kalka assembly constituency by a margin of 15,000 votes.

Bhajan Lal said he would have been happier if the party had won more seats. "I know what Chautala has been talking about before the elections. We had put in a lot of hard work under the leadership of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. We have more than doubled our strength in the state and the Congress is now rebuilding the party," he said.

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