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Abhay Chautala wins Rori by a landslide margin

In a landslide victory, ruling Indian National Lok Dal nominee Abhay Chautala, younger son of Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, was on Monday declared elected to the Haryana assembly in a byelection from Rori constituency.

He trounced his nearest Congress rival, Baldev Dass, by a record 86,000 votes in a nine-cornered contest.

The Congress boycotted the counting in protest against the alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct by the INLD during the polling held on May 26.

Of the 1,03,233 votes polled, Abhay Chautala garnered 93,402 votes while Baldev Dass secured 7,391 votes.

Abhay Chautala, who has been elected to the Haryana assembly for the first time, was on a winning spree right from the first round of counting. In each round of counting his lead piled up, outdistancing his main Congress rival.

The byelection was considered a cakewalk for Abhay Chautala by political observers because of the Congress's failure to put up a strong candidate.

The voters gave a collective thumbs-down to the remaining eight candidates in the fray, none of whom could save even his security deposit.

With the election of Abhay Chautala to the state assembly, the strength of the ruling INLD has again gone up to 47 in the 90-member house.

The ruling party also enjoys the support of all the 11 independents. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has six members in the assembly, is extending support to it from outside.

The Congress, the main Opposition party, has 21 members in the house, the Haryana Vikas Party, headed by former chief minister Bansi Lal, has two members, while the BSP, the RPI and the Nationalist Congress Party have one member each.

The election was caused by Chautala vacating the Rori seat after being elected from there and the Narwana assembly constituency in the mid-term polls in February.

Chautala had defeated his nearest Congress rival and younger brother Ranjit Singh by a margin of 22,606 votes in February.

UNI

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