Haryana election results | How did those who switched alliances fare?

Haryana Assembly elections: Ahead of the Assembly polls, several candidates jumped ship from Congress and other parties to join the BJP, and vice-versa. The Hindu takes a look.

The practice of switching party loyalties and becoming a turncoat is a fixed feature of the Indian political experiment. Haryana both follows the trend and is the trend-setter: the phrase “Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram” originated following the first legislative assembly elections in newly-created Haryana, in 1967, when then Hassanpur MLA Gaya Lal switched parties three times in a span of 15 days.

Also read: Haryana Assembly election results LIVE

As results are finalised for each constituency, we take a look at some of the candidates in the field who switched parties shortly ahead of the elections, and how they have fared in the race.

Key parties in the Haryana political field include the Bharatiya Janata Party, looking to return for a third term in office, Indian National Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Jannayak Janata Party and Indian National Lok Dal.

The BJP has scored a hat-trick win in the State defying expections and exit poll predictions.

Shyam Singh Rana, who had switched over from INLD to the BJP, contested polls from Radaur. He garnered more than 73,000 votes, winning with a margin of around 13,132 over Dr. Bishan Lal Saini of the Congress.

In June, Tosham MLA Kiran Chaudhary, who had been a member of Congress for four decades, joined BJP along with her daughter Shruti Chaudhary, a Rajya Sabha MP who had been previously been the State unit chief for Congress. Ms. Shruti Chaudhary was fielded as the BJP candidate from Tosham. She got more than 76,000 votes, winning with a margin of 14,257 votes over her cousin Anirudh Chaudhary, who was contesting on a Congress ticket.