Congress emerges main beneficiary of anti-BJP wave in Punjab, Haryana

The farmers’ discontentment with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over farm laws cast its shadow on the poll verdict in both the agrarian states of Punjab and Haryana. And the Congress emerged as the main beneficiary of the anti-BJP sentiment by winning six and leading in other six out of the total 23 Lok Sabha segments in the two states. While the Congress nearly matched their 2019 performance in Punjab and won seven out of 13 seats , the major gains were made in Haryana where the grand old party was poised to take five out of 10 seats, a pleasant departure from 2019 when the BJP had made a clean sweep in the state. 

In a boost to Congress, Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s son Deepender Hooda from Rohtak and Jai Prakash from Hisar were leading by more than 3 lakh and 5 lakh votes respectively. Other seats where Congress was ahead of the saffron party are Sonipat, Sirsa and Ambala. In Sirsa, Kumari Selja, former union minister and close aid of Rahul Gandhi won by 2.68 lakh votes. 

Apart from farmers’ discontent, anti-incumbency against the BJP, Agniveer scheme, smart ticket distribution by the Congress are among the reasons for the deteriorating performance of the BJP in Haryana. This is clear from the fact that in 2019, BJP candidates from Faridabad and Karnal had won with a margin of more than 6.5 lakh votes. That difference reduced considerably with the lead margin of just 1.6 and 2.1 lakh in Faridabad and Karnal respectively. There was also a considerable spike in vote share of the Congress. Experts say that the Lok Sabha poll results will certainly have an impact on the state assembly polls in Haryana scheduled for October this year. 

Punjab threw up a major surprise with two seats – Khadoor Sahib and Faridkot – set to go to hardliners Amritpal Singh and Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa – both of whom fought as independent candidates. While Amritpal, a radical Sikh preacher is lodged in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act, Sarabjeet Khalsa is son of Beant Singh, one of the two assassins of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Amritpal was leading the fight with over two lakh votes. Their win is an indication that after over three decades radical sentiments, which remained on the margins, will now found space in the legislative proceedings and may redefine politics in Punjab.   

Although Congress tally in the border state reduced by one seat from 2019, the grand old party should be happy with their performance, especially in the backdrop of the threat they faced in the form of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which had swept the state assembly elections in 2022 and was hoping to cash in on their freebie model of governance. The AAP, which was also facing anti-incumbency due to unfulfilled promises, improved their tally from one to three by winning Anandpur Sahib, Hoshiarpur and Sangrur segments. 

Shiromani Akali Dal, which was fighting for its political survival, managed to win the lone seat of Bathinda, their stronghold where Prakash Singh Badal’s daughter-in-law and three time MP, Harsimrat Kaur Badal won by a small margin. The BJP failed to open its account in Punjab unlike 2019 when it had bagged two seats from the sensitive border state.