Farmers Movement Archive

INLD’s Chautala defeats BJP to retain Ellenabad

Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD) Abhay Singh Chautala on Tuesday defeated his nearest rival and BJP nominee, Gobind Kanda, by over 6,000 votes in a close contest to retain the Ellenabad Assembly seat in Haryana. However, the BJP managed to narrow the margin of defeat to almost half compared to 2019. The Congress’s Pawan Beniwal polled 20,904 votes to finish a distant third. In an election fought under the shadow of the farmers’ agitation, Mr. Chautala had a clear edge over his rivals, with Ellenabad being the fortress of the Chautala clan. However, Mr. Kanda, the joint candidate of the BJP-JJP (Jannayak Janta Party), put up a tough fight, with the margin of votes between the two narrowing down to less than 3,000 after the tenth round of counting. While Mr. Chautala polled 65,992 votes in 16-round counting of votes, Mr. Kanda got 59,253 votes, as per the Election Commission of India app. Campaigning against the BJP-JJP nominee, Samyukt Kisan Morcha leader Rakesh Tikait had, in a broad hint, asked the voters to ensure victory for Mr. Chautala with an improved margin. In the first reaction to the results, Home Minister Anil Vij said, “Abhay Chautala has won this election technically, but lost on moral grounds”.

The Hindu

2021-11-03

GURUGRAM