Thaindian News

Chandigarh, Dec 4 (IANS) For Haryana’s ruling Congress, the victory in the bypoll to the Ratia assembly seat - a feat that the party has achieved for the first time in 29 years - means a lot.

A visibly happy Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, while interacting with the media at his residence here Sunday evening, said the Congress victory in Ratia was “the dawn of new politics in Haryana”.

“This is an important victory. People have voted for development and the policies of the Congress government. They have rejected the politics of casteism, regionalism, falsehood and loot,” he added.

With its candidate Jarnail Singh comfortably triumphing over his Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) rival, Sarfi Devi, by over 12,700 votes, the Congress leadership in the state is heaving a sigh of relief.

The Congress had won the Ratia seat only once in 1982, that too by a margin of less than 200 votes, when its candidate Neki Ram won narrowly.

The INLD had won the last three assembly elections in 2000, 2005 and 2009 on the Ratia seat. The seat fell vacant September after the sitting INLD legislator Gian Chand Odh passed away following an illness.

Sarfi Devi is Odh’s widow.

The victory is likely to give a major boost to the ruling party after it lost badly in the Hisar Lok Sabha seat bypoll in October, even though it lost the by-election to the Adampur assembly seat Sunday.

Congress candidate Jarnail Singh polled 65,071 votes against the 52,368 votes polled by Sarfi Devi and 18,142 polled by the BJP’s Mahavir Prasad. The BJP candidate was supported by the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC).