Anatomy of 32 losing votes: How Brijendra lost Uchana Kalan

Congress candidate from Uchana Kalan Brijendra Singh lost by the lowest margin of 32 votes to BJP’s Chatar Bhuj Attri today.

In what has turned out to be one of the closest contests in this election, JJP leader and kingmaker of the 2019 poll Dushyant Chautala was reduced to fifth place. He even lost his security deposit, polling only 7950 votes.

BJP’s Attri polled 48,968 votes, while Brijendra got 48,936 votes.

Two Independent candidates — Congress rebel Virender Ghogharian and Vikas —also polled more votes than Dushyant. Ghogharian secured 31,456 votes, while Vikas got 13,458 votes.

“I lost by a narrow margin of just 32 votes. The Congress rebel polled more than 31,000 votes, but I do not blame him. We will analyse the reasons behind the defeat,” Brijendra told mediapersons.

Analysts pointed to the obvious: If Ghogharian had not been a Congress rebel and had supported the official candidate, the result might have been different.

Uchana Kalan is a Jat-dominated constituency with over 1.17 lakh Jat votes. Both Ghogharian and Vikas are Jats, as is Brijendra. It is clear that the Jat vote got divided, the analysts added. Attri, the BJP candidate who won, is a Brahmin.

Dushyant Chautala had won handsomely from here in 2019 — a seat that had catapulted him into the limelight, from where the BJP had wooed him. His party, the JJP, joined the BJP coalition and jointly ruled Haryana until the two fell out earlier this year.