Ellenabad: Abhay Chautala wins, but margin shrinks

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Sirsa, November 2

The INLD leader, Abhay Singh Chautala, survived a scare, retaining the Ellenabad Assembly seat. He defeated BJP candidate Gobind Kanda by a margin of 6,739 votes. This was his fourth straight victory.

Ellenabad being a bastion of the Chautala family, Abhay had expected a victory margin bigger than in 2019 (11,922 votes). That did not happen.

The BJP candidate polled 59,253 votes, pushing Congress’ Pawan Beniwal to the third spot. Beniwal lost his security deposit. Beniwal has lost to Abhay twice before in Ellenabad. Likewise, Kanda has been defeated twice by the INLD leader in neighbouring Rania as Haryana Lokhit Party nominee. This is second straight defeat for the ruling BJP-JJP alliance in the byelections. It had last year faced a drubbing in the Baroda (Sonepat district) bypoll. Thanking the farmers for his victory, Abhay accused the ruling BJP of misusing government machinery and “distributing money” to influence voters. On the reduced victory margin, he said: “There was blatant misuse of government machinery. We lodged 15 complaints but the EC observer did not take cognisance. Also, some Congress leaders supported the BJP candidate.”

Abhay said he would visit the Tikri and Singhu borders soon. Asked whether he would resign again, he replied: “Yes, if my supporters ask me to do so.” Gobind Kanda, who joined the BJP two days before he filed his nomination papers, thanked the voters for their support.