Haryana Polls: Turncoats See Mixed Fortunes as BJP Secures Hat-Trick Victory, Congress Falls Short

Chandigarh: Having been rewarded with poll tickets by their new parties, Haryana polls have turned out to be a mixed bag for the turncoats. While a win eluded some of them, there were the lucky ones too.

Among the lucky ones was Ram Kumar Gautam, who was a sitting MLA of JJP from Narnaund and he joined BJP weeks ahead of the assembly polls.

The BJP fielded Gautam (78), popularly known as "Dada Gautam", from Safidon and he won the seat defeating Congress ' Subhash Gangoli.

From Shahabad, Congress ' Ram Karan defeated BJP 's Subhash Chand. Karan had switched over to the Congress from the JJP before the polls.

Another turncoat to taste victory was Shyam Singh Rana, who joined the BJP from the INLD. He won from Radaur defeating Congress ' Bishan Lal Saini.

From Tosham, Shruti Choudhry, who quit the Congress earlier this year to join the BJP , won the seat defeating her cousin brother Anirudh Chaudhary.

Shruti is the granddaughter of former Haryana chief minister late Bansi Lal.

However, there were some for whom changing parties did not yield electoral success.

Brijendra Singh switched over to the Congress from the BJP . He lost to BJP's Devender Attri from Uchana Kalan by a narrow margin of 32 votes.

Among other turncoats who could not make it to the Vidhan Sabha this time were JJP leaders who had switched over to other parties.

Devender Singh Babli, who joined the BJP after leaving the JJP shortly before polls, was defeated by Congress ' Paramvir Singh from Tohana.

Another leader who switched over from the JJP to the BJP was Anoop Dhanak. He was defeated by Congress ' Naresh Selwal from Uklana.

Bucking anti-incumbency, the ruling BJP pulled off a hat-trick of wins in Haryana to retain power and halt the Congress ' comeback attempt in the assembly elections.

Haryana went to polls on October 5.

While the BJP ended up with its best-ever haul of 48 seats, 11 more than the Congress , parties like the JJP and AAP were decimated and the INLD managed to win just two seats. AAP had contested on its own. 

(With PTI inputs)