BJP’s Bhavya Bishnoi holds on to family bastion in Haryana’s Adampur bypoll

Adampur has been represented by Bhajan Lal’s family since 1968.

Holding on to over five-decade-old bastion of his family, BJP’s Bhavya Bishnoi, grandson of late Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, registered a comfortable victory in Adampur bypoll in Haryana’s Hisar defeating his nearest rival and Congress candidate Jai Prakash by 15,740 votes.

While Mr. Bhavya polled 67,492 votes — 51.32 of the total votes cast — Mr. Jai Prakash secured 51,752 votes. Aam Aadmi Party’s Satiender Singh finished the distant fourth with 3,420, which is 2.6 % of the total votes cast. Of the 22 candidates in fray, 11 finished behind fictional candidate, “NOTA”, who polled 237 votes.

Indian National Lok Dal’s candidate Kurda Ram Nambardar, the Congress rebel, finished third with 5,248 votes.

The Assembly constituency was earlier held by Bhavya’s father Kuldeep Bishnoi, who quit Congress to join BJP in August miffed over being ignored by his party for the post of state president. Adampur has been represented by Bhajan Lal’s family since 1968.

The margin of victory for Mr. Bishnoi, however, reduced by almost half since the Assembly election in 2019 when his father defeated BJP candidate late Sonali Phogat by around 30,000 votes.

BJP state chief O P Dhankar said the victory in Adampur bypoll was “encouraging” for the party workers and an approval of party’s “good governance”, “organisational skills” and “election management”.

Congress Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda also expressed satisfaction over the result saying the reduced margin of victory for the BJP had made him “hopeful” for the future. He added that the electorate in Adampur had rejected the JJP, AAP and INLD making it clear that the assembly election in 2024 would be a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress.