Looking to capitalise on its extra-ordinary performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls, the ruling Congress' decision to have the state assembly elections advanced by seven months did not work as the party failed even to get a simple majority.
Looking to capitalise on its extra-ordinary performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls, the ruling Congress' decision to have the state assembly elections advanced by seven months did not work as the party failed even to get a simple majority.
The Congress had retained nine out of ten seats in the last LS polls in the process earning a lead in 59 of the 90 assembly segments and ending up getting a vote share of 41.79%. Five years back the party had won 67 seats in the assembly poll.
With development as its main plank, the Congress had hoped that it would atleast cross the 60 seat figure, but not only did it fall way short, it also lost its stalwarts like Birender Singh (Uchana Kalan), State unit chief Phool Chand Mullana (Mullana) and Mange Ram Gupta (Jind) at the hustings.
After his cabinet recommended the dissolution of the assembly on August 21, chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had been exuding confidence that the Congress would win with a huge margin.
"I am not an astrolger, but I can tell you that Congress will have a clean sweep," was his refrain whenever journalists asked him to predict the number of seats which his party would win.
However, factors like multi-cornered contest on all the 90 seats, resentment in a section of Congressmen over ticket distribution and division of Jat and non-Jat votes seems to have dented the Congress' votebank.
In 2005 assembly polls, the Congress had bounced back strongly when it won 67 seats while INLD had received a severe drubbing losing power and getting reduced to just 9 seats.
But with poll results out, the INLD has made significant gains, ending up on a tally of 31 seats.
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