Why BJP coasted to victory in Adampur: Divided Jat votes to precise campaign pitch | Political Pulse News,The Indian Express
Infighting in the Congress and a weak INLD failed to put up any resistance as Bhavya Bishnoi won the seat that his family has held since 1968.
The poll became necessary after Bhavya’s father Kuldeep Bishnoi left the Congress over differences with the party and joined the ruling dispensation. But the change in political allegiance did not matter to voters as they chose to repose their faith in Bhajan Lal’s family. This is the first bypoll victory for the ruling coalition of the BJP and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) since it came to power in 2019.
A family citadel holds
The family of the three-time former CM has never lost Adampur since 1968, irrespective of the parties they contested from. Since 1967, the Congress has registered 10 wins in Adampur. While Bhajan Lal was the party’s candidate on six occasions, his wife Jasma Devi once retained the seat for the party. After quitting the Congress in 2007, Bhajan Lal and Kuldeep floated the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL). As an HJC candidate, Kuldeep contested the 2009 Assembly polls, his wife Renuka the 2011 bypoll, and Kuldeep again in 2014. On all three occasions, they won.
In 2016, Kuldeep merged HJC (BL) with the Congress and Adampur was back with the Congress once more in the 2019 Assembly polls. But, after he was not appointed the Haryana Congress president, Kuldeep quit the party in August this year and moved to the BJP. Kuldeep’s vote share in Adampur had been increasing over the years. In 2009, he polled over 48,000 votes. This increased to over 56,000 votes in 2014, and to more than 63,000 votes in 2019.
Soon after Kuldeep Bishnoi and his family joined BJP, the saffron party was quick to declare Bhavya Bishnoi as its nominee because the party knew that it stood a better chance than others to win Adampur.
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