After a humiliating defeat in the Jind by-poll, Congress’ candidate Randeep Surjewala blamed his party’s leader for his defeat. In an indirect attack on the Grand Old party, Senior Congress leader claimed that party leaders didn’t help him in the highly-anticipated election.
Speaking at a meeting in Kaithal, Haryana, Surjewala hinted that this election defeat is somewhat similar to the 1993 by-poll defeat where he was defeated allegedly due to a backstabbing by a former Congress’ Chief Minister. Surjewala further urged that the Grand Old party is deeply rooted and those who are trying to demean the Congress party should know that such attempts had been made in the past as well but they never succeeded.
Various Congress leaders too reacted on Surjewala’s claims. Senior party leaders urged him to name those who betrayed him or have demanded action against such leaders. Interestingly, the former CM Bhupinder Hooda, his son Deepender Hooda, state Congress Chief Ashok Tanwar, Rajya Sabha MP Kumari Selja, Congress Legislature Party Chief Kiran Choudhry, and Adampur MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi were the important leaders who campaigned in the Jind by-polls.
Demanding for action against the traitors, former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda asked Surjewala to disclose their names. On the same note, Kiran Choudhry stated that only Randeep would know who betrayed him. “He should come out with the names of leaders he is referring to,” Choudhry added. Talking to a media person on Sunday, Kumari Selja too urged Surjewala to bring the names of leaders to the notice of the AICC president, Rahul Gandhi.
Coming back to the statement of Surjewala, in his meeting, the Congress veteran further stated that the Grand Old party was almost dead in Jind but he managed to save and secure a substantial amount of votes. “We had just 14 days and we managed to get around 23,000 votes. Had we got some more time for the by-poll, the results would have been better,” he added.
Moreover, at the time of vote counting the Congress party, led by Randeep Surjewala had disrupted the poll process and further, the counting was halted for some time, alleging the malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Notably, at the same time, counting was underway in Ramgarh Rajasthan as well where the Congress had won but there had not been any complaints regarding the EVMs.
Later, In order to maintain law and order, police resorted to lathi charge outside the Jind counting centre. Talking to ANI, SP Ashwin Shenvi said, “There was unlawful assembly (of people), which didn’t disperse when we asked them to. We had to use slight force to disperse them. The situation is normal now”.
The saffron party’s victory in the Jind by-poll is a mandate of the people for the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s policies and good deeds. The no-non-sense CM that Manohar Lal Khattar has focused on governance while leaving the game of political mudslinging for the opposition. The Khattar government remains very popular among the people in the state. This is the first time that the BJP secured a victory on the Jind seat.
On the other hand, Congress’ candidate Randeep Surjewala was tagged as “outsider” and ended on the third position. It is evident that earlier the malfunctioning of the EVMs and now blaming his own party leaders is nothing but a ploy of Surjewala’s to cover his defeat and the Congress party’s in general.