The Adampur assembly byelection was held on 3 November and results were announced on 6 November 2022. In this election, Bhajan Lal’s grandson Bhavya Bishnoi won the seat on a BJP ticket by more than 16,000 votes. He secured 67,492(51.3%) while his nearest tribal congress’ Jai Prakash got 51,752(39.3%) votes. INLDs Kurda Ram secured 5,248(3.99%) votes while AAPs got just 3420(2.6%) votes.
Background of Adampur Constituency
Adampur known as Mandi Adampur is one of Haryana’s 90 Assembly Constituencies. This is one of the constituencies that former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s family has never lost since 1968. And the strike continues in this byelection also. The poll became necessary after Kuldeep Bishnoi left Congress over differences with the party and joined the ruling party. But in this election voters show their faith in Bhajan Lal’s family. This is the first by-poll victory for the ruling coalition since it came to power in 2019.
Here are some important reasons why BJP won this by-poll:-
A family Stronghold
The family of the former Chief Minister of Haryana has never lost Adampur since 1968, irrespective of the parties they contested from. The election has won by this family i.e. by Kuldeep Bishnoi in 2009 and 2014 and his wife in the 2011 by-poll elections. After not being appointed the president of the party Kuldeep Bishnoi left the party in August 2022 and moved to BJP. The vote share of Kuldeep Bishoi has increased continuously over the years. In 2009 he got over 48,000 votes, in 2014 48,000, and more than 63,000 votes in 2019. That was why Bhavya Bishnoi win this election.
Well designed Agenda
The next assembly poll will be in 2024. Hence newly elected MLA Bhavya Bishnoi has two years to give his best to the constituency for better performance in 2024. Kuldeep Bishnoi who represent Adampur four times was the main builder of the campaign in the Adaelection. He worked on the agenda that most of the time he won from Adampur he was in Opposition and that was why he could not bring the level of development that the constituency deserves. He assure the votes of the Adampur constituency that if his son won the election then they ensure the development of Adampur in the next two years. This agenda works he found success to convince the electorate.
Caste-based vote bank
Bhavya Bishnoi’s competition was with the three Jat candidates of three opposition parties. Three-time MP Jai Prakash for Congress, Kurdaram Nambardar for INLD, and Satender Singh for AAP was competing for this seat. Kuldeep Bishnoi got successful to grab the vote of non-jat voters as the jat votes were divided among all three candidates.
Alliance Backup
BJP-JJP alliance led by CM Manohar Lal Khattar and Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala held a massive strength in Adampur. The entire state cabinet shared the state and sought votes for Bhavya Bishnoi. By holding the joint rally, the two ruling parties managed to get their respective votes. The loyalty towards Bishnoi backed up by BJP and JJP’s vote bank led to Bhavya’s victory.
Conclusion
With the victory in Adampur by-poll Bhavya Bishnoi continues the winning streak of Bhajan Lal’s family. This election left a lot of questions for congress and AAP. The Adampur election took place only a few months after the AAP was swept to power in the neighboring state of Punjab in a stunning performance. With the victory in Punjab AAP was encouraged but the results in Adampur’s byelection were not encouraging for them. On the other hand, INLD has been trying for a revival since 2019 and also suffered a huge setback in the Adampur byelection.
Congress leader Bhupender Singh Hooda gave his best in this by-poll. The side-lined leaders including Randeep Surjewala, Kumari Shailja, and Kiran Chaudhary had stayed away from the campaign. Ex-CM Bhupender Hooda, his son, Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda, and PCC Chief Uday Bhan were the lead campaigners for congress candidate Jai Prakash. The absence of unity among the leaders of the congress party may be one of the major reasons for their loss in the Adampur byelection.