 "Haryana, J-K election results 2024: Omar Abdullah, Bhupinder Hooda and Vinesh Phogat… Who won and who lost?")
It has been a day full of surprises.
After trailing in early leads in Haryana, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emerged third-time lucky — it is set for a big win in the Hindi heartland state.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the National Conference (NC) and Congress alliance emerged victorious with a clear majority in the first election held since 2014.
As celebrations begin, here’s a look at how the big candidates are faring in the polls so far.
HARYANA
Nayab Singh Saini, BJP
Incumbent Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has won from the Ladwa seat in the Kurukshetra district in the Haryana Assembly election. He defeated Congress candidate Mewa Singh.
Other contestants in the fray were AAP’s Joga Singh, Indian National Lok Dal’s Sher Singh Barshami, and Jannayak Janta Party’s Vinod Sharma.
Reacting to his victory, Saini said, “I want to thank the people of Ladwa and the 2.80 crore population of Haryana. The credit for this victory goes to PM Modi. The people of Haryana have put a stamp on the policies of PM Modi.
The PM called the Haryana chief minister and congratulated him on the BJP’s historic victory in the state.
Bhupinder Hooda, Congress
Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has won the Garhi-Sampla-Kiloi seat in Rohtak.
Known as the ‘Jat heartland,’ the area is a stronghold of Hooda.
However, there is little for Hooda to celebrate as the Congress has lost the election in the state.
The 76-year-old veteran is the face of the party in the state. He shaped the Congress’ poll strategy and was in charge of its campaign.
The BJP had given a ticket to Manju Hooda, the current chairperson of the Rohtak Zila Parishad, while the AAP’s nominee was Pravin Guskhani.
Vinesh Phogat, Congress
Congress candidate and Olympic wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who was contesting her first election, won in the Julana constituency.
Phogat was up against Indian Army Captain Yogesh Kumar of the BJP and the Jannayak Janta Party’s (JJP) sitting MLA Amardeep Dhanda.
Following her disqualification from the 50 kg gold match in the Paris Olympics 2024, Phogat quit wrestling and joined Congress.
She led protests against former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Singh in the sexual abuse case and has said that the fight against him would continue.
“This is the fight of every girl, every woman who chooses the path to fight. This is the victory of every struggle, truth. I will maintain the love and trust that this country has given me,” the wrestler-turned-politician said after her victory.
Anil Vij, BJP
BJP’s Anil Vij won in the Ambala Cantt constituency.
Vij got 59,858 votes.
Meanwhile, Congress rebel Chitra Sarwara, contesting as an Independent, came in second with 52,581 votes.
The Congress fielded Parvinder Pal Pari in the constituency.
Pari got a mere 14,469 votes.
Vij was seeking re-election for the seventh time from the seat.
A home minister in the previous Manohar Lal Khattar government, he was dropped from the Haryana Cabinet after Nayab Singh Saini came to power in March.
Savitri Jindal, Independent
India’s richest woman, Savitri Jindal, won from the Hisar constituency.
Contesting this election as an Independent, the mother of BJP’s Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal received 49,231 votes.
She defeated Congress rival Ram Niwas Rara by 18,941 votes.
“People of Hisar are my family and it is they who wanted me to contest,” Jindal had said after announcing her nomination.
She said, if elected, she would strongly raise the voice of her constituents in the Vidhan Sabha.
Jindal, with a net worth of $36.3 billion, is the fifth-richest Indian, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index released on September 28.
She is the richest woman in the country, and also the only woman billionaire among India’s top 10 richest persons.
Dushyant Chautala, JJP
Dushyant Singh Chautala lost the Uchana Kalan seat.
The Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) chief and former Haryana deputy CM received just 7,950 votes.
BJP candidate Devender Chatar Bhuj Attri won in a nail-biting contest against Brijendra Singh, son of the former Union minister Birender Singh.
The margin between Attri and Singh was just 32 votes.
Chautala in the 2019 elections had won the seat by defeating Brijendra’s mother Prem Lata Singh by over 47,000 votes.
Prem Lata, who was then with the BJP, had in turn defeated Chautala in 2014.
Abhay Chautala, INLD
A veteran of Haryana politics, Abhay Singh Chautala, of the Indian National Lokdal (INLD), lost from the Ellenabad seat.
He was defeated by his rival, Congress’ Bharat Singh Beniwal, by 15,000 voters.
Abhay Singh Chautala was the lone member of the INLD in the 90-member Haryana Assembly.
Udai Bhan, Congress
Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan lost from the Hodal Assembly constituency.
Bhan was runner-up with 66,270 votes.
The BJP’s Harinder Singh, a first-time candidate, won the race with 68,865 votes.
The difference between the two men was 2,595 votes.
A four-time MLA, during his campaign, Bhan has spoken frequently about his “clean image” to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “kharchi-parchi” jibe.
Bhan in 2019 lost to BJP’s Jagdish Nayar by 3,000 votes.
JAMMU and KASHMIR
Omar Abdullah, National Conference
The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister contested two seats and won both by a margin of 18,000 and 10,000 votes.
The Ganderbal Assembly seat is a stronghold of the National Conference, having elected three generations of the Abdullah family. Omar Abdullah previously represented Ganderbal from 2009 to 2014 when he was elected chief minister in the National Conference-Congress coalition government.
Squaring off against Abdullah in Ganderbal was jailed cleric Sarjan Wagay, widely known as Sarjan Barkati, and Sheikh Ashiq, from Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party.
Abdullah defeated PDP’s Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi in Budgam.
As results were declared, NC chief Farooq Abdullah said his son Omar would be the next chief minister of the Union Territory.
Iltija Mufti, PDP
The outspoken daughter of former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Iltija Mufti, lost from the Srigufwara-Bijbehara constituency.
Iltija was making her electoral debut as a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate.
She was defeated by National Conference (NC) veteran Bashir Veeri by more than 9,000 votes.
The PDP has maintained its hold on the constituency since 1996.
The seat was held by Mehbooba as well as Sayeed Mehbooba Mufti.
However, in recent years, the National Conference has gained momentum.
Her loss comes as a big blow to the party.
Sajad Lone, People’s Conference
People’s Conference chief Sajad Lone contested two seats.
He won in North Kashmir’s Handwara constituency while losing in Kupwara.
The 57-year-old beat National Conference’s Choudhary Ramzan, who previously won the seat in 2008, in Handwara by 600 votes.
However, in Kupwara, Lone lost to PDP’s Mir Mohammad Fayaz by a considerable margin.
Ravinder Raina, BJP
The BJP chief in the Union Territory, Ravinder Raina, lost to National Conference’s Surinder Choudhary from the Nowshera constituency.
Raina received 27,250 votes compared to Choudhary’s 35,069 votes.
Early this morning, Raina performed a ‘yagya’ and expressed confidence that his party would secure a majority and form a government, potentially with the support of Independents.
Yousuf Tarigami, CPI(M)
Senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader MY Tarigami won from the Kulgam constituency in South Kashmir in the Assembly election.
Tarigami received 33,634 votes.
He beat Sayar Ahmed Reshi, a candidate backed by the hardline Jamaat-e-Islami, who got 25,796 votes.
The other candidates in the race were Mohammad Amin Dar from the PDP and Engineer Mohammad Aqib from the Apni Party.
A prominent leader in the region, Tarigami has represented the Kulgam constituency in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in 1996, 2002, 2008, and 2014.
Tareeq Hameed Karra, Congress
Tariq Hameed Karra of the Congress won in Central Shalteng.
Karra received 18,933 votes compared to the Independent Muhammad Irfan Shah, who got just 4,538 votes.
In August, right after the Election Commission announced the schedule for the Jammu-Kashmir elections, the Congress appointed Karra as the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee.
Karra made a name for himself when he won the Lok Sabha election in 2014 from Srinagar by a margin of over 40,000 votes, giving the first-ever electoral defeat to National Conference’s Dr Farooq Abdullah in four decades.
With inputs from agencies
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