Modi magic in India continues. First, it secured Narendra Modi government its third term in office in the national polls in June, a feat only recorded by Jawahar Lal Nehru in 1967. Now defying all opinion/ exit polls, Modi magic delivered the BJP a hat-trick victory in the Haryana Assembly election, silencing all naysayers and critics who had claimed the BJP would be annihilated in the state. Inflicting a big blow to the Congress and in particular to Rahul Gandhi who had made some ludicrous statements in the US, only days prior to joining the campaigning in Haryana, turning the preparations made to celebrate the victory which never happened, into an eyesore.
The BJP won 48 seats out of 90 in Haryana, while the Congress folded at 37 delivering a clear and decisive victory to the BJP. An elated Chief Minister Nayab Saini who had replaced Mr Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister since 2014, only six months ago, gave all the credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the win.
All the pundits had written the BJP off this time. Yogendra Rawat had particularly predicted a landslide win for the Congress forecasting three possibilities: – a wave for the Congress, a storm for the Congress; or a tsunami for the Congress.
It was not only the political pundits, the Congress apparatus and apparatchiks alike were also overly confident that they would oust the BJP and wrest power to rule the state for the next five years. Quite early in the day, the Congress started distributing ‘laddoos’, but the celebrations had to be paused and abruptly halted as counting progressed and a different picture started emerging. Withing a matter of one hour, the BJP swung ahead, dashing all the Congress hopes. And now, the Congress leaders started complaining of the EVMs foul play.
Addressing a media briefing Congress henchmen Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera, two of the closest to Rahul Gandhi, said they have received “very serious complaints” on the process of counting and they will move the Election Commission.
Jairam Ramesh said “what we have seen today in Haryana is a victory for manipulation, a victory for subverting the will of the people and it is a defeat for transparent democratic processes”
“The results in Haryana are totally unexpected, completely surprising and counter-intuitive. It goes against ground reality. It goes against what the people of Haryana had made their minds up for, which was for change and transformation. I think under these circumstances, it is not possible for us to accept the results that have been announced today,” he said. .
“We have received very serious complaints on the process of counting, the functioning of EVMs in at least three districts. There are more that are coming in. We have spoken to our senior colleagues in Haryana and this information is being collected. We hope to present this in a consolidated form to the Election Commission tomorrow or the day after. We will seek time…Serious questions have been raised by our candidates. We will bring it to the notice of the Election Commission,” he added.
Pawan Khera said the party cannot accept such an outcome.
“If it is said in one line, this is the victory of the system and the defeat of democracy. We cannot accept this…We are collecting complaints. Our candidates have given complaints to the returning officers there and are still giving them. In the coming days, we will soon go to the Election Commission with all these complaints and register our complaint there. This kind of result was not visible anywhere on the ground. No one can believe that such an unexpected result will come in Haryana. We are all surprised,” Khera said.
From his residence in Kurukshetra Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini who won from Ladwa, addressing the BJP workers and leaders at said:
“I want to thank the 2.80 crore people of Haryana for putting a stamp on the works of BJP for the third time. All this is only because of PM Modi. Under his leadership, we are moving forward. He spoke to me and gave his blessings. I had faith that the poor, farmers and the youth of Haryana would bless me,” he said.
Union Minister and former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar also praised PM Modi saying that the people of Haryana had rejected Congress.
“People have given this message that the policies of PM Modi had a positive impact on the people of the state. This is a record in Haryana that a party has come to power for the third time,” he said.
Former Congress Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda is rumoured to have take a firmer control of the ticket distribution and stands to get the blame. Rahul Gandhi knows, the Congress was not helped by its own infighting. The Congress Dalit leader Kumari Selja was upset after the party gave a free hand to Hooda in ticket distribution.
Hooda won his Garhi Sampla-Kiloi seat by a margin of 71,000 votes.
Congress rookie wrestler Vinesh Phogat has won the seat of Julana by over 6,000 votes.
The BJP claims the result shows the Youth, the farmers and the Agniveers and lovers of the constitution of India in Haryana have rejected the Congress. It is somewhat incredulous that many leaders of the Congress on the other hand attribute their victory of 37 seats to the support they got from Haryana farmers.
A post-mortem will bring out many skeletons in the Congress closet but for the ones in the Gandhi family’s domain.
Over in Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP has only won 29 seats against 49 seats won by the coalition of the NC and Congress. Omar Abdullah will be sworn in as the Chief Minister of the Union territory.
The LOP – Rahul Gandhi, again proved to be the biggest asset for the BJP with his ‘jalebi factory’ (Matu Ram Jalebi) speech in Kurukshetra, Haryana. Although his sycophantic devotees saw an added spring in his step after Indian elections in June, he has been pretty much put back in the box and given to removalists for use in Maharashtra for next month’s elections.
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