Hry: INLD's Abhay Chautala manages to win Ellenabad seat
Chandigarh: In an electoral battle that eventually proved a neck-and-neck battle between Abhay Singh Chautala of the INLD and Gobind Kanda of the BJP, the former managed to retain the seat he resigned in January this year by a margin of 6708 votes.
In the counting of votes held on Tuesday, Abhay Chautala got 65897 votes against 59189 by his nearest rival Gopal Kanda.
With 20857 votes, Pawan Beniwal of the Congress finished a poor third.
While INLD got over 43.5 per cent votes, BJP-JJP candidate got over 39 per cent and Congress managed 14 per cent votes.
Abhay Chautala managed to maintain a lead right from the very first round, and his victory was never in doubt throughout though the margin came down midway when the votes of Ellenabad town were being counted.
The BJP candidate polled 1477 more votes that the INLD candidate from Ellenabad town while a large majority of villages, Abhay Chautala maintained a lead over his rivals.
In Darba Kalan, the native village of Congress candidate Pawan Beniwal, and its neighbouring village Darba Khurd, Abhay Chautala slipped to third position after Kanda and Beniwal.
However, Abhay Chautala managed to maintain overall lead throughout the counting.
As the counting progressed, Abhay Chautala's supporters began assembling outside Chaudhary Devi Lal University in Sirsa where the counting of votes was conducted amid tight security cover.
Fireworks were witnessed as the returning officer announced Chautala as victorious.
Abhay Chautala described his win as victory of farmers as well as that of the people of Ellenabad.
He said had the BJP and JJP not indulged in "use of money to lure voters", the victory margin could have been more than 10000 votes.
His son Karan Chautala alleged that the government used all his power to win this election, but failed because the people had decided to defeat the "anti-farmer" party.
The bypoll was necessitated due to Chautala's resignation from the State Assembly on January 27 this year in support of farmers' agitation against the three agriculture laws.
