The Bharatiya Janata Party recorded a historic win in the high-stakes Jind byelection in Haryana, when its nominee Krishan Middha defeated Jannayak Janata Party-supported Independent candidate Digvijay Singh Chautala by a margin of over 12,000 votes in a three-cornered contest.
The Congress’s high-profile candidate Randeep Singh Surjewala polled 22,740 votes to finish a distant third.
In Rajasthan, the ruling Congress touched the halfway mark in the 200-member Assembly by winning Alwar district’s Ramgarh seat by a margin of 12,228 votes.
Congress candidate Safia Khan, a former zila pramukh and wife of two-time MLA Zubair Khan, defeated her nearest rival, Sukhwant Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party, by securing 44.77% votes.
Bahujan Samaj Party’s Jagat Singh, son of former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, came third and lost his security deposit.
In Jind, Mr. Chautala, with strong support in the rural areas, especially among the Jats, maintained a slender lead over the BJP's Middha in the first three rounds, but lost ground soon after the counting of votes began in the urban areas.
Mr. Middha, who polled a record 50,566 votes, defeated Mr. Chautala, also supported by Aam Aadmi Party, by a margin of 12,935 votes. Mr. Chautala got 37,631 votes.
The Congress tried to make a contest of it by fielding its Communications chief Surjewala, but the choice of candidate seemed to have gone wrong with already two more Jats in the contest, including Indian National Lok Dal's Umed Singh Redhu.
Mr. Surjewala also found it hard to shrug off the tag of being a “non-serious” candidate as he already represents Kaithal in the Vidhan Sabha.
The polling at the Ramgarh seat was postponed after the then BSP candidate Laxman Singh died of cardiac arrest on November 29, 2018. The December 7 Assembly election was held for 199 of the 200 constituencies in the State, in which the Congress won 99 seats and formed the government with its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal. The Congress’ tally of 100, reached after the victory in Ramgarh, will reduce its dependence on smaller parties, according to observers.
