This is a huge number and it is not possible to remember that in any other state election, an independent candidate stood third on 10 seats and got so many votes that the party standing second was defeated. This has happened in a small state like Haryana, where there are a total of 90 seats and the elections have been almost bipolar. In 10 out of these 90 seats, the independent candidates who stood third got so many votes that the Congress lost. Apart from this, on four seats the third placed candidates of small parties defeated Congress. There are a total of 14 seats i.e. 15 percent seats where Congress lost because of the candidate who stood second but stood third. In this, some seats are due to BJP’s micro management and some seats are due to Congress’s own mistakes, where it left the strong candidate and gave tickets to another candidate in some other election.
Such seats include Sohna, Narwana, Uchana Kalan, Assandh, Kalka, Badhra, Mahendragarh, Safidon, Yamunanagar, Rai, Barwala, Samalkha, Dadri and Tosham. Of these, INLD stood second in Narwana, Barwala and Yamunanagar and BSP stood second in Assandh. Independents stood second on the remaining 10 seats. BJP’s Tejpal Tanwar won in Sohna by 11,877 votes. Rohtas Singh of Congress got 49,366 votes. Independent Javed Ahmed, who stood third, got 49,210 votes and Independent Kalyan Singh, who stood fourth, got 21,754 votes. After this, BSP also got 15 thousand votes and AAP got three thousand votes. Of these, Javed Ahmed has definitely cut into Congress votes only.
Uchana Kalan seat in Haryana was very high profile. Former IAS officer and former MP Brajendra Singh, son of Birendra Singh, who left BJP and returned to Congress, was the Congress candidate. He lost by just 32 votes, while third-placed independent Virendra Ghogharian got 31,456 votes and fourth-placed independent Vikas got 13,458 votes. Former Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala moved to fifth position on this seat. Similarly, in Kalka seat, BJP’s Shakti Rani Sharma defeated Congress’ Pradeep Chaudhary by 10,883 votes, while independent Gopal Sukhomajri, who stood third, got 31,688 votes. Congress’s Somveer Singh lost the Badhra seat by 7,585 votes, while Somveer Ghasola, who stood third, got 26,730 votes.
Tosham was such a high profile seat, where Congress had fielded Chaudhary Banshilal’s grandson Anirudh Chaudhary and he was pitted against his cousin. BJP had fielded Shruti Chaudhary, granddaughter of Banshilal and daughter of Kiran Chaudhary. Anirudh lost this seat by 14,257 votes, while independent Shashi Ranjan Parmar, who stood third, got 15,859 votes. An example of the mistakes Congress made in ticket distribution is Vallabhgarh seat, where former Congress MLA Sharda Rathod kept asking for ticket but the party did not give her the ticket. In the results, Sharda Rathod stood second with 44 thousand votes, an independent stood third and Congress’s Parag Sharma stood fourth with 8,674 votes. His bail was confiscated. Congress should consider these things before blaming EVMs etc.