BSP plays spoiler in Rohtak, fares poorly elsewhere

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 23

The Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) vote share dipped from 4.6 per cent in 2014 to 3.63 per cent in 2019, but in Rohtak it worked as a spoiler for the Congress as its candidate Kishan Lal Panchal got over 38,000 votes.

Congress candidate Deepender Singh Hooda, son of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, lost by a slender margin of close to 3,000 votes to BJP’s Arvind Sharma. In 2014, Manoj Kumar of the BSP had polled just 18,690 votes.

In 2019, the BSP had contested in Haryana in alliance with Raj Kumar Saini’s Loktantra Suraksha Party (LSP). Of the 10 seats, it contested on eight while the LSP fought on two. The LSP got a vote share of 0.45 per cent. Both of them jointly got 4.08 per cent votes.

“We are analysing the results. It is below our expectations. It appears that we have got no benefit of the alliance. We will send a report to party supremo Mayawati, who will then take a final call on the future of the alliance with the LSP,” said BSP state in charge Megh Raj.

The best performance of the BSP was in 2009 when it got 15.74 per cent votes. The BSP has never won a seat from Haryana except in 1998 when Aman Kumar Nagra won the Ambala Lok Sabha seat.