HJC supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi wins Hisar LS bye-election

Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi today won the Hisar Lok Sabha bye-election, defeating his nearest rival Ajay Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) by a margin of 6323 votes.

In the results declared this afternoon after counting of votes in the October 13 bye-election was taken up this morning, Mr Bishnoi, who was the candidate of the HJC-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine, polled 355941 votes against Mr Chautala's 349618 votes.

Congress candidate Jai Parkash, a former Union Minister who has represented the constituency thrice in the past, finished a distant third with 149785 votes.

Bishnoi is the son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal , whose death in June necessitated the bye-election.

Counting of votes began at 0800 hours today amidst tight security arrangements. The district administration had imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC in the radius of 100 metres around the mini-Secretariat where the counting of votes was held.

Mr Chautala is the son of former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala. In all, there were 40 candidates in the fray.

The Anna Hazare factor had become a significant feature in the run-up to the bye-election as Team Anna, led by Mr Arvind Kejriwal, appealed to the electorate not to vote for the Congress as it has so far failed to deliver on the Jan Lokpal Bill. Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi also addressed public meetings in the constituency.

Interestingly, Team Anna urged the electorate to vote for any candidate except the Congress nominee.

NNN