Congress wins Baroda bypoll as BJP’s Yogeshwar Dutt loses

The ruling BJP-JJP alliance in Haryana failed to pass the Baroda litmus test on Tuesday as wrestler-turned-politician Yogeshwar lost the election to a Congress candidate. The Congress won the seat with a margin of 10,566 votes.

The ruling alliance had put a lot of attention on this seat, which is the stronghold of Bhupender Singh Hooda, the Congress stalwart and leader of Opposition in the state. Defeat in the by-election brought out a lot of issues for the BJP as well as the JJP. It has forced the two parties to mull over their debacle and factors responsible for the same.

The poll output indicates that BJP-JJP alliance could not convince the Jats, who constitute more than 50 percent of total votes in the seat. Apart from this, following the lathi-charge in Pipli only increased the problems for the ruling faction.

It is worth mentioning that Yogeshwar Dutt lost the last general election in 2019 with a margin of just 4,840 votes. Now with the defeat margin further increasing, it shows all’s not well in the ruling alliance in Haryana.

A total of 69 percent voters exercised their franchise in the poll while 14 candidates including a woman contestant were in the fray. Out of these, 12 contestants could not save their deposit which led them to meet embarrassing defeat.

Proving the mettle of father-son duo Bhupender Singh Hooda and Deepender Singh Hooda, the result showed again that Baroda is still their bastion, and defeating the Hoodas there is almost an impossible task, as of now.