Chandigarh: High-stake Adampur seat bypoll records over 76% turnout

Chandigarh: The Adampur bypoll which recorded over 76.5 % turnout on Thursday, is being seen as a battle of prestige between the ruling BJP-Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) combine nominee Bhavya Bishnoi and Congress’ candidate Jai Prakash, a loyalist of former two-time chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Bhavya is son of former senior Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi who quit the grand old party and joined BJP in August this year, thus necessitating this bye-election.

The voting passed off peacefully with there being no reports of any untoward incidents in this assembly constituency which has about 1.7 lakh voters and which falls in Hisar district.

The fight has also become keener with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominee Satinder Singh and the Indian National Lok Dal has Kurda Ram Nambardar, a farmer leader, also being in the fray. While Bhavya belongs to the Bishnoi community, the remaining trio candidates are Jats. The Jat majority seat also has a substantial chunk of Bishnoi and other castes votes.

Seat has always been won by former tall Congress leader Bhajan Lal

However, this seat has always been won by former tall Congress leader Bhajan Lal or his family members 16 times since 1968; Lal won this assembly seat nine times, his son Kuldeep, four times (besides being an MP from Hisar twice), the latter’s wife Renuka in 2011 and Kuldeep’s mother Jasma Devi, in 1987.

This time, Bhavya, grandson of former chief minister Bhajan Lal, is contesting this assembly bypoll and it is a litmus test for the dynast whether he retains the seat as well as make his maiden win or not; he had faced a brutal drubbing in his maiden poll in 2019 Hisar parliamentary election – losing his deposit – when he was defeated by BJP’s Brijendra Singh.

Pertinently, Jai Prakash, a three-time MP from Hisar and an MLA from Kalayat (district Kaithal), who is facing Bishnoi’s son, is a loyalist of Hooda, the Congress legislature party (CLP) leader in state assembly, while Hooda’s another loyalist Udai Bhan is state party chief.

Jai Prakash was seen alone during campaign

However, conspicuously enough, some senior leaders including former party president Kumari Selja, Randeep Surjewala, Kiran Chaudhry were not seen campaigning for Jai Prakash.

This poll battle is also a crucial battle for ruling BJP as it has lost two bypolls since it came to power in 2014 – Baroda seat to Congress in 2020 and Ellenabad seat to INLD in 2021.

Meanwhile, making the contest keener, the INLD top leader and former CM Om Prakash Chautala remained at ground zero campaigning for days together for the party nominee Kurda Ram Nambardar, a known farmer leader. Likewise, AAP supremo and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal as well his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann also campaigned for the AAP candidate Satinder Singh.