The ruling Congress in Haryana on Sunday retained two assembly seats as the newly-floated Haryana Janhit Congress opened its account in the Vidhan Sabha with former chief minister Bhajan Lal winning the Adampur seat for a record 10th time.
Septuagenarian Lal, expelled from the Congress after he joined the Haryana Janhit Congress floated by his son Kuldeep Bishnoi last December, trounced his nearest Congress rival Ranjit Singh by a margin of over 26,188 votes. Bishnoi, who floated the Haryana Janhit Congress, is the younger son of Bhajan Lal whose elder son Chander Mohan is the deputy chief minister in the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government.
Lal had romped home from Adampur constituency for the first time in 1968 when mid-term elections were held in the state. Except in 1987 when his wife Jasma Devi won the seat after he moved over to the Centre, the 78-year-old former Congress veteran had emerged triumphant from the seat 10 times.
In two other assembly by-elections in the state, the Congress retained both the Indri and Gohana seats. In Indri the Congress's Bhim Sen Mehta defeated Rakesh Kamboj by a margin of 5,865 votes. Mehta had contested as an Independent last time and lost to Kamboj by a margin of 19,578 votes. INLD nominee Ashok Kashyap finished third securing 27,900 votes in a multi-cornered contest. Kamboj had won the seat on the Congres ticket in the 2005 assembly election. In Gohana, the Congress's Jagbir Singh Malik defeating the INLD's K C Bangar by 22,162 votes.
The bypolls arose after the disqualification of Bhajan Lal, Kamboj and Dharampal Malik from the state assembly for joining the Haryana Janhit Congress.
In 2005, Bhajan Lal had fought on a Congress ticket and won the Adampur seat by a margin of 71,081 votes.
This time, Lal polled 56,841 votes against Ranjit Singh's 30,653 and Indian National Lok Dal's Sampat Singh who polled 20,136 votes. Bharatiya Janata Party hopeful Raghavanand and 37 others lost their security deposits.
With Lal's victory though with a reduced margin, the Haryana Janhit Congress opened its account in the 90-member assembly.