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National Lok Dal, won 10 seats. The BJP 90 seats at stake compared to its previ- to the state assembly. Cabinet minister
is still best placed to form a government ous tally of 15. and five-time MLA Anil Vij retained
in Haryana. In a way, an incumbent From the 58 per cent vote share the his traditional bastion of Ambala Can-
returning to power in a state is BJP had in the Lok Sabha polls, it fell to tonment, whereas minister of state
creditable. 36.5 per cent in the assembly polls. Dr Banwari Lal emerged victorious
The wide margin between the par- In Maharashtra, the BJP’s tally in the from Bawal.
ty’s vote share in the recent Lok Sabha 288-member Assembly was 105 while it Vij drubbed Congress rebel Chitra
polls and the latest assembly elections was 57 for the Sena. In the 2014 polls, the Sarwara, who fought as independent,
suggests that voters are driven by dif- BJP and the Sena won 122 and 63 seats by over 20,000 votes. Dr Lal retained
ferent factors in different elections, and respectively. They had then contested Bawal, defeating Dr ML Ranga by over
the BJP’s effort to frame every contest separately. The saffron alliance vote 32,000 votes. The minister who lost
around issues like nationalism to sub-
sume local bread and butter issues may
not hit the bull’s-eye every time.
Agrarian issues and large scale
defection of opposition leaders to the

The wide margin
between the BJP’s vote
share in the recent
Lok Sabha polls and
the latest assembly
elections suggests
that voters are driven
by different factors in
different elections and
can’t be wooed with
same issues every time

BJP, according to some experts, may
have worked adversely against the
party’s interest in Maharashtra.
Asked if NCP veteran Sharad Pawar
managed the issue of Enforcement Di-
rectorate registering a case against him share stood at 42 per cent against 51 per the elections are Ram Bilas Sharma
during elections to his advantage by cent in the parliamentary polls. Allies of (Mahendragarh), Capt Abhimanyu
projecting himself as a victim of politi- the BJP may feel boosted by the results (Narnaund), Om Prakash Dhankar
cal vendetta, a saffron party leader was as it will now have to depend more on (Badli), Kavita Jain (Sonipat), Krishan Lal
quoted as saying that it was certainly a party like Shiv Sena, which was feeling Panwar (Israna), Manish Kumar Grover
“bad optics” for the BJP. increasing marginalised since 2014 as (Rohtak), Krishan Kumar Bedi (Shah-
In Haryana, a consolidation of votes the BJP replaced it as the senior partner. bad), and Karan Dev Kamboj (Radaur).
of Jats, the largest community in the The BJP had earlier denied tickets to
state, against the BJP was seen as cru- Eight Haryana ministers lose two of its ministers-Vipul Goel and Rao
cial in harming the party’s prospects. Eight Haryana ministers lost the as- Narbir Singh. The saffron party’s idea
The Congress, which failed to bag even sembly elections, which saw just two of shifting minister Karan Dev Kamboj
one seat in the Lok Sabha polls in of the 10 ministers fielded by the ruling from Indri to Raduar also failed to yield
Haryana, won or was ahead in 31 of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returning positive results. Manohar Lal Khattar

Tehelka / 15 november 2019 10 www.Tehelka.com