Adampur bypoll: Bhavya Bishnoi 6th member of Bhajan Lal clan to win

Deepender Deswal

Hisar, November 6

The BJP candidate, Bhavya Bishnoi, 29, became the sixth member of the Bhajan Lal family to retain the family bastion in Adampur by defeating the Congress candidate and former Union Minister Jai Prakash.

He also became the youngest MLA to enter the Haryana Assembly.

Political experts maintained that the byelection had steeply polarised the voters in two blocks, with the two main rivals jointly securing 1,19,244 (90.67%) votes, while the rest of the 21 candidates, including NOTA, got just 12,279 (9.33%) votes. The byelection had a total of 22 candidates except NOTA.

A total of 1,31,523 votes were cast, which included 222 postal ballots.

The ECI counting data stated that out of the total 13 rounds of the counting, Jai Prakash (Congress) had the upper hand in four rounds (2, 10,11 and 13), while nine rounds went to BJP candidate Bhavya. The first round went to Bhavya, with a lead of 2,832 votes, who again secured the biggest lead of 4,257 votes in the third round which had most of the polling booths of the biggest village of Sadalpur village. He strengthened his position in the fifth round again with a lead of 3,829 votes.

A relook at the 2019 Assembly election result indicated that the victory margin had shrunk significantly in comparison to that of his father Kuldeep Bishnoi when he contested on the Congress ticket, while the BJP had fielded TikTok star Sonali Phogat. Then, Kuldeep Bishnoi had defeated Sonali Phogat by a margin of 29,417 votes. Kuldeep had secured 63,483 votes, while BJP’s Phogat had polled 34,169 votes.

The byelection result is almost a repeat performance of Kuldeep Bishnoi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when he had taken a lead of 16,191 votes over the then INLD candidate Dushyant Chautala. Dushyant, though, won the LS seat, courtesy his massive leads in Uchana Kalan, Uklana and Narnaund Assembly segments.

Bhavya had also contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election on the Congress ticket from the Hisar seat and secured the third spot, making it to the Assembly on his home turf. Before Bhavya, his grandfather won nine times, while his father Kuldeep Bishnoi emerged victorious four times. Bhavya’s mother Renuka and grandmother Jasma Devi had also become MLAs in 2011 and 1987, respectively.

As Bhavya won by a margin of 15,740 votes, this is the lowest victory margin in the four byelections held in this Assembly segment. Kuldeep Bishnoi made his debut in politics in 1998 byelection and won by 17,775 votes. In the 2008 byelection, Bhajan Lal had registered an emphatic victory of 26,188 votes over Ranjit Singh of the Congress. In the 2011 byelection, Bhavya’s mother Renuka Bishnoi had registered a win by a margin of 22,669 votes over the Congress candidate Kuldeep Beniwal.

Former CMs’ relatives in Assembly (past & present)

Sixth member from Bhajan Lal family

Grandfather Bhajan Lal, grandmother Jasma Devi, father Kuldeep Bishnoi, mother Renuka and uncle Chander Mohan had been MLAs.

8 members of Devi Lal in Haryana Assembly

Eight members of the Devi Lal’s family in Assembly had been MLAs, of whom four members, including Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala, who is great grandson of Devi Lal, Dushyant’s mother Naina Chautala are JJP MLAs in Assembly, while Devi Lal’s son Ranjit Singh is Independent from the Rania Assembly and grandson Abhay Singh Chautala is INLD MLA from the Ellenabad Assembly constituency. Besides Devi Lal, his two sons, Om Prakash Chautala (ex-CM), Pratap Chautala, grandson Ajay Singh had been MLAs.

Five members of Bansi Lal family

Five members of the Bansi Lal’s family had been legislators in Haryana, including Bansi Lal, who also served as CM, his son Surender Singh, Singh’s wife Kiran Choudhary (who is currently Cong MLA), Bansi’s elder son Ranbir Mahendra and son-in-law Sombir Singh. Bansi’s granddaughter Shruti Choudhary had been MP from Bhiwani Mahendergarh.