Congress wins 5 seats; farmers' discontent and Agnipath take a toll on BJP's tally

GURGAON: BJP lost considerable ground in the state - failing to replicate its performance in 2014 and 2019, when it bagged all 10 seats - but managed to hold on to the three south Haryana constituencies of Gurgaon, Faridabad, and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh.
Congress gave BJP a tough fight, winning 5 seats - Rohtak, Hisar, Sirsa, Ambala and Sonipat. Apart from the three seats in the south, BJP secured Karnal and Kurukshetra in the north.
While BJP managed to retain the three south Haryana seats, its victory margin nosedived.Rao Inderjit Singh of BJP defeated Congress candidate Raj Babbar by 75,079 votes in Gurgaon. In 2019, Rao Inderjit had trounced Congress's Ajay Singh Yadav by 3.9 lakh votes.
In Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Chaudhary Dharambir Singh won against Congress's Rao Dan Singh by 41,510 votes. In 2019, he had won by a margin of 4.4 lakh votes against Congress rival Shruti Chaudhary.
In Faridabad, Krishan Pal Gurjar won by more than 1.7 lakh votes against Mahender Pratap Singh of Congress. In the last election, Gurjar had defeated Congress's Avtar Singh Bhadana by 6.4 lakh votes.
Despite an apparent discontent against local MPs, BJP had decided to go ahead with old-timers in south Haryana - Rao Inderjit from Gurgaon, Gurjar in Faridabad, and Dharambir Singh from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh. They were among 4 sitting MPs across the state on whom the party had reposed faith.
BJP candidate Arvind Sharma, who had won from Rohtak the last time, lost by 3.4 lakh votes against Deepender Singh Hooda, the son of Congress veteran and former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
So, what went against BJP this time?
Sources in the party admitted there was a discontent among people against the state govt, particularly among farmers and members of the Jat community.
"Yes, farmers and rural voters drifted away from the party, but those in urban areas aligned with us. Urban voters played a big role in BJP's win in Gurgaon and Faridabad," said a BJP functionary.
Agnipath, the govt's short-term Army recruitment scheme that left many youths unhappy because of the reduced job tenure, also had an impact on the results.
In Kosi - which is in Rewari but part of the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat - Congress bagged a lead of a few thousand votes this time. In 2019, Kosi had voted overwhelmingly for BJP.
Arvind Saini, the media in-charge of BJP in the state, accused the opposition parties of spreading a false narrative against the govt.
"Despite all of this, we retained half the seats after being in power for 10 years," he added.