BJP sees 12% drop in vote share, Congress up by 15%

Ravinder Saini

Rohtak, June 4

In a tough battle in the Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost half of the seats (five out of 10 seats) in Haryana, but managed to get the highest vote share across the state again. However, it recorded a sharp drop of 12.11 per cent in its vote share compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha poll.

According to reports, the BJP got 46.10 per cent votes this time, while the figure was 58.21 per cent in the previous elections. The Congress, which wrested five seats from the BJP, got 43.68 per cent of the total polled votes with a hike of 15.17 per cent while the vote share was 28.51 percent in 2019. The Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), which was part of the state government with the BJP for four and a half years, suffered a major setback in these elections as it could not get even one per cent vote.

The JJP’s vote share was 4.9 per cent in 2019 poll, and it reduced to 0.87 per cent this time. Ravinder Sangwan, the party candidate in Rohtak, polled merely 0.5 per cent votes while former Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala’s mother Naina Chautala, who was in the fray from Hisar, got 1.8 per cent votes.

The voters, especially belonging to farmer communities, were annoyed with the JJP as it had helped the BJP to form a coalition government in the state in 2019 despite seeking votes against the saffron party during the Assembly elections.

“The decline in the JJP’s vote share in Lok Sabha poll is not a surprise. It was quite expected as the JJP leadership was facing flak from voters over the farmers’ issue. It was also evident during the poll campaign when the farm activists not only resisted its candidates but also questioned them about their stand over farm and wrestlers’ agitation,” said a political analyst.

A slight decline in the vote share of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) was witnessed in these elections. The party received 1.9 per cent of polled votes in 2019 while the vote share went down to 1.75 per cent this time. The INLD’s senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala, the party nominee from Kurukshetra, got 6.53 per cent votes.

Similarly, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) recorded 3.6 per cent vote share in the previous Lok sabha poll. It reduced to 1.27 per cent this time. Surprisingly, the party candidate from Rohtak withdrew his nomination papers without taking the party’s state leadership in confidence. He later supported the Congress candidate.

The AAP, in alliance with the Congress, contested the elections only for the Kurukshetra seat and received 3.94 per cent votes while the figure was 0.36 per cent in the 2019 poll. However, AAP candidate from Kurukshetra Sushil Gupta got 42.55 per cent vote share this time.