Despite leading in Panchkula, Kalka, Banto Kataria loses Ambala seat

Ravneet Singh

Panchkula, June 4

Having managed to get a lead in her home district Panchkula, BJP’s Banto Kataria still lost the Ambala constituency seat to Congress’ Varun Chaudhary. Banto managed to poll 6,10,685 votes in the constituency while Chaudhary polled 6,57,745 votes and won by a margin of 47,060 votes.

Interestingly, the presence of state assembly speaker Gian Chand Gupta in her Assembly constituency and a BJP-led Panchkula city corporation could not turn the tables in her favour in the constituency.

The contest for the Ambala Lok Sabha seat came off as a tough fight among the two candidates — Congress’ Varun Chaudhary and BJP’s Banto Kataria, while the others trailed far behind. As many as 2,76,278 votes (63.79 per cent) of the total 4,33,094 votes were cast in the district. This included 1,35,031 votes cast from Kalka Assembly constituency and 1,41,247 votes from the Panchkula Assembly constituency.

Banto managed to gain a lead in her district, in both Assembly constituencies of Kalka and Panchkula. Her cumulative vote share in the district was 1,48,429 votes, while Chaudhary’s share reached 1,14,663 votes, a difference of 33,766.

This is despite the fact that Haryana Assembly Speaker and Panchkula city resident Gian Chand Gupta actively participated in the party’s campaigning in the city. He along with the party’s local leaders came together and carried out campaigns in her support. Panchkula BJP district president Deepak Sharma said various factors worked for Banto in the district. “She is a local resident. The factor coupled with the support of state and national leadership and hard work of party workers in the district gave her a considerable lead,” he said.

Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and BJP national president JP Nadda held rallies and roadshows in her favour in Panchkula. All these factors along with the city corporation, which is also led by the BJP, together failed to turn the tables in her favour in the constituency.

She managed to gain a lead of 807 votes in the first round. By the end of second round, her lead came down to a difference of 395 votes. Chaudhary’s share increased by the end of the third round and he gained a lead of 1,095 votes. Interestingly, his lead was then checked by Banto in the fourth round as her total count climbed to 16,844 votes while Chaudhary trailed with 16,145 votes. The close contest saw an increase in the vote share of both Banto and Varun, but the Congress candidate’s total count could not surpass Banto’s share. By the final round of counting in Kalka, as many as 69,257 votes had been cast in favour of Banto while Chaudhary trailed with 58,412 votes.

The contest remained close in Panchkula Assembly segment as well. Banto’s share of 4,691 votes remained higher than that of Chaudhary’s share of 4,413 votes in the first round. The gap constantly increased with each round, a difference of 451 votes by the end of second round, 3,555 votes by the third and by 7,108 votes by the fourth round. Banto got a total of 79,172 votes from Panchkula Assembly constituency while Chaudhary got 56,251 votes.