Among the Congress MLAs who lost included Shamsher Singh Gogi, Pradeep Chaudhary, Mewa Singh, Surender Panwar, Dharam Singh Chhoker, Amit Sihag and Chiranjeev Rao.Losing more than half of its sitting legislators dealt a blow to Congress’ comeback chances.Besides, the rebel factor also played out which also damaged the Congress’ prospects. The rebels split the vote against the BJP going to saffron outfit’s advantage, but causing damage to Congress on a few seats.Chitra Sarwara, a Congress rebel, jumped into contest from Ambala Cantt to take on BJP stalwart Anil Vij. She was denied ticket by the Congress.Vij defeated Sarwara by a margin of over 7,000 votes. While Vij secured 59,858 votes, Sarwara got 52,581 while Congress candidate Parvinder Pal Pari got 14,469 votes.There were a few more seats like Bahadurgarh, Kalka, Gohana and Ballabhgarh where the rebels upset the Congress applecart.From Ballabhgarh in Faridabad district, BJP’s sitting MLA Mool Chand Sharma defeated her nearest rival Shardha Rathore.Rathore, who was an aspirant of Congress ticket, fought as an Independent after failing to get a ticket. Mool Chand secured 61,806 votes, Rathore got 44,076 votes while Congress’ Parag Sharma ended up at fourth spot.In the Lok Sabha polls too, senior leader Hooda’s choice prevailed in eight of the nine seats the Congress fought barring the Sirsa seat contested and won by Selja.It won five seats while its INDIA bloc ally AAP unsuccessfully fought the Kurukshetra seat.In the Assembly polls too, Hooda’s choice prevailed in over 70 seats and somewhere it left leaders like Selja sulking.Selja had on Tuesday said the party high command should assess all reasons that led to the disappointing result and identify the people responsible.”The Haryana poll results are disappointing and I am pained at the disappointment of the Congress workers in the state who have worked very hard and were looking forward to forming their government after 10 years,” she had told reporters.”It will not be business as usual in Haryana and I am sure the Congress high command would identify those who negated the efforts to bring the party to power after 10 years,” Selja added.
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