Naveen Jindal beats AAP’s Gupta to take Kurukshetra
Nitish Sharma
Kurukshetra, June 4
In an interesting contest, the BJP managed to retain the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat after its candidate Naveen Jindal defeated his nearest rival AAP’s state chief and INDIA bloc candidate Sushil Gupta by a margin of 29,021 votes on Tuesday.
The lone AAP candidate in Haryana gave some tense moments to the saffron party in the initial rounds.
As many as 31 candidates were in the fray from the Kurukshetra constituency. While in the initial rounds, Sushil Gupta managed to take the lead, as the counting progressed, Jindal strengthened his position and maintained the lead till the end. While Jindal got 5,42,175 votes, Sushil Gupta was polled 5,13,154 votes and Abhay Chautala 78,708 votes.
Meanwhile, jubilant BJP workers and leaders along with the winning candidate distributed sweets and took out a victory procession in Kurukshetra. Jindal also paid obeisance at Bhadrakali temple. He was accompanied by his wife Shallu Jindal, mother Savitri Jindal and BJP leaders.
After victory Jindal said, “I am grateful to the party workers who worked hard in the field to spread the message of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I am also thankful to the people of Kurukshetra and BJP leadership for giving me the opportunity. We will make collective efforts to fulfil the expectations of the people of Kurukshetra.” AAP state chief and INDIA bloc candidate Sushil Gupta said, “I am grateful to the people of Kurukshetra for their love and support. I will stand by the people of Kurukshetra in every situation and will play my role in the development of Kurukshetra.
INLD secretary general Abhay Chautala, said, “We accept the mandate given by the voters. INLD’s organisation is still the strongest in the state. Where the Congress organisation is nowhere on the ground, there is a lot of internal fighting too, but in these elections, Congress got the benefit of the opposition wave due to being a national party and due to national issues, the public voted for it. We are ready to contest the Assembly elections with full strength.”
Third term as MP
With the victory in the Lok Sabha election, Naveen Jindal has got his third term as Kurukshetra MP. Previously,Jindal had won the Lok Sabha election in 2004 and 2009 elections on the Congress ticket. He had lost the election in 2014.
Margin low compared to last poll
Though the BJP has retained the Kurukshetra seat, the margin came significantly down compared to the previous Lok Sabha election. In 2019, the BJP had won the seat by a margin of 3.84 lakh votes, when Nayab Saini had defeated Congress candidate Nirmal Singh.
Setback for INLD
The INLD suffered a major setback in Kurukshetra as its secretary general Abhay Chautala finished third despite getting support from farmer unions and various organisations.
