The BJP has won the bypolls in Haryana's Adampur, defeating the Congress by over 16,000 votes. Bhavya Bishnoi, son of BJP leader Kuldeep Bishnoi and grandson of former state Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, defeated Congress veteran Jai Prakash to retain his family stronghold.
Bhavya Bishnoi got 67,376, and Jai Prakash 51, 662. The two other big contenders, Kurda Ram from INLD and AAP's Satinder Singh, got 5,241 and 3,412 votes respectively.
The Adampur seat has been held by the Bhajan Lal family since 1968, with the late ex-Chief Minister representing it on nine occasions, his wife Jasma Devi once, and Kuldeep Bishnoi on four occasions.
However, the winning margin fell this time -- from Kuldeep Bishnoi's win by over 29,000 votes in 2019 to Bhavya Bishnoi's win by nearly 16,000 votes this time.
BJP's Adampur win comes after electoral losses in two consecutive by polls in Haryana, amid 'anti-incumbency' claims in the state.
76.45 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the Adampur assembly segment in Hisar district, where bypolls were held on Thursday. Twenty-two candidates, all men, had contested from the seat.
Bhavya Bishnoi had maintained that Adampur has been his family's citadel, and that people have showered their love and blessings on it for decades and would do so once again.
Congress leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, however, has termed Adampur a stronghold of his party. Late Bhajan Lal was a Chief Minister from the Congress, he has underlined.
The bypoll was necessitated after Kuldeep Bishnoi resigned as MLA from the seat and switched sides from the Congress to the BJP in August.
Bhavya Bishnoi (29) had lost 2019 Lok Sabha polls on the Congress ticket from Hisar to BJP's bureaucrat-turned-politician Brijendra Singh.
The Congress fielded former Union minister Jai Prakash, a three-time MP from Hisar and two-time MLA as well.
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