Haryana’s seat was decided by just ‘0.85%’ votes! This is how BJP defeated Congress in margin game

New Delhi: From the initial trends of Haryana assembly elections to the final results, the hopes of both Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress remained alive. At one point in the initial trends, Congress crossed the majority mark. Celebrations also started at the Congress office but this celebration proved to be a short-lived joy.

The trends changed and BJP recovered and the picture changed, Congress’ hopes remained alive till the end in a close contest but the party never seemed to be in a position to form the government. The celebration of victory shifted from the Congress office to the BJP camp. In the margin game of Haryana, Congress lagged behind by a small margin. The picture of power was decided by a small margin and the party’s 10-year long exile from the power of the state got an extension of another five years.

Margin game of Haryana elections
The fight in Haryana elections can be gauged from the fact that there were only five seats where the margin of victory and defeat was more than 50 thousand. The margin of victory and defeat was more than 50 thousand in Badshahpur, Ferozepur Jhirka, Garhi Sampla-Kiloi, Gurgaon and Panipat Rural Assembly seats. The record of the biggest victory is in the name of Congress’s Maman Khan from Ferozepur Jhirka. Maman Khan won the election by a margin of 98 thousand 441 votes.

There were 19 seats in the state where the margin of victory and defeat was less than five thousand votes, in which three seats – Dabwali, Loharu and Uchana Kalan were decided by a margin of less than one thousand. Out of these 19 seats with close contest, Congress won on seven seats, BJP on 10 seats and Chautala family’s Indian National Lok Dal candidates won on two seats.

Congress won after lagging behind on these seats
Talking about the close fought seats of Haryana, Congress was trailing on Panchkula seat till afternoon but in the end the results came in favour of the party. Congress candidate Chandramohan Bishnoi won by 1997 votes. In Fatehabad itself, the scene changed as the day progressed and Balwan Singh Daulatpuria, who was trailing continuously, later made a comeback and won by a margin of 2252 votes. On Adampur seat also, BJP’s Bhavya Bishnoi maintained the lead for a long time but in the end Congress candidate Chander Prakash won. Something similar was seen on Kalanaur seat as well. BJP candidate Renu Dabla maintained the lead for a long time but suddenly the scene changed and the lead that Congress’s Shakuntala Khatik got proved to be decisive.

0.85% margin decided the picture of power
If we look at the figures, there was less than one percent difference in terms of vote share between BJP, which was going to form the government with full majority by winning 48 seats, and the opposition Congress which was stuck at 37 seats. BJP got 39.94 percent votes and Congress’s vote share was 39.09 percent. Talking about votes, BJP got a total of 55 lakh 48 thousand 800 votes and Congress got 54 lakh 30 thousand 602.

The mirror of figures is telling that the difference of one lakh 18 thousand 198 votes between the party going to capture power and the party which remained in the opposition proved to be decisive. In Haryana, only 0.85 percent vote gap decided the picture of power.

Congress’s game could have been made with the support of AAP!
In the Haryana elections, Aam Aadmi Party candidates could not even save their deposits on most seats, but if we look at the overall results, it seems that if Congress had formed an alliance with it and votes had been transferred, the picture could have been different. Aam Aadmi Party has got two lakh 48 thousand 455 votes, which is much more than the difference in votes between Congress and BJP.