Congress sweeps all three seats in Nuh district in 2024 Haryana assembly polls
Political analysts attribute this trend to the communal violence in Nuh and other parts of Haryana in July 2023.
The Congress on Tuesday secured a comprehensive victory in Nuh, winning all three assembly seats in the Haryana district —Nuh, Punahana, and Ferozepur Jhirka.
The party’s dominance marks the second time it has swept the Muslim-dominated district, with its vote base significantly consolidating, according to data from the Election Commission of India (ECI), with the party polling 59.26% votes in Nuh, 58.31% in Punahana, and 72.03% in Ferozepur Jhirka. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which lost all three seats in the district last time around, saw its vote share further nosedive this year, and was a distant third in two out of the three seats.
Political analysts attribute this trend to the communal violence in Nuh and other parts of Haryana in July 2023, following which the BJP-led state government — then under Manohar Lal Khattar — undertook a large-scale demolition drive in the district, targeting properties who those allegedly involved in the violence.
The demolitions affected several Muslim-owned homes and shops, leading to significant backlash from the community. “This resulted that the Congress vote bank further consolidated in all three constituencies of Nuh and the BJP’s vote share dipped even after they also had fielded Muslim candidates as always looking at the minority dominated seats,” said Anil Ayra, political analyst.
Arun Yadav, BJP state social media head, said their seat share across Haryana has gone up this time, which is an important factor. “Everyone else was speculating about Congress’s win across Haryana, which voters shattered by silently voting for our PM Narendra Modi. We will examine later what went wrong in Nuh and other seats where our candidates did poorly,” he said.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Pankaj dawar said: “The same happened in Nuh, and perhaps BJP’s stances against minorities after last year’s riots had made the voters inclined towards us.”
Ferozepur Jhirka
One of the biggest gains was made by Congress candidate Mamman Khan, who was arrested on September 14, 2023for his alleged involvement in the Nuh riots. Khan won the Ferozepur Jhirka seat with a margin of 98,411 votes against BJP’s Naseem Ahmed, a major improvement over his 2019 victory margin of 37,004 votes. Khan secured 130,497 votes, up from 84,546 in the previous election.
Khan credited the Congress’s success to public discontent with the BJP’s crackdown. “People were in support of Rahul Gandhi. Voters sent a message to BJP for its atrocious actions against the common people of Nuh after the riots and getting him arrested by dragging his name in the cases,” he added.
BJP’s Naseem Ahmed, who contested the Ferozepur Jhirka seat in both elections, saw a steep drop in support. Ahmed secured 32,056 votes this time, a decline from the 47,542 votes he received in 2019.
Ahmed, meanwhile, said that they will review their strategies to ascertain what went wrong. “Our party will continue to work for the common people despite the result,” he added.
Nuh
In the Nuh seat, Congress’s Aftab Ahmed also significantly improved his victory margin, winning by 46,963 votes against Indian National Lok Dal’s Tahir Hussain, compared to his narrow victory by 4,038 votes in 2019. Ahmed garnered 91,833 votes this time, up from 52,311 in the last election.
In response to his victory, Ahmed said he was confident of his victory from the seat but had not anticipated such a rise in the support. “Congress was continuously working for the people in Nuh. Even after last year’s riots, we were helping the victims including those who suffered due to government crackdown even after having no role at all in the violence which helped us in winning their confidence,” he said.
In contrast, the BJP’s performance in Nuh nosedived. Sanjay Singh, the party candidate, managed only 15,902 votes, finishing third.
Punahana
Meanwhile, in Punahana, Congress’s Mohammad Ilyas won for the second consecutive time, increasing his victory margin from just 816 votes in 2019 to 31,916 in this election. Ilyas received 85,300 votes against independent candidate Rahish Khan, who trailed with 53,384 votes.
Ilyas credited his victory to his party leaders especially Rahul Gandhi and Bhupinder Singh Hooda. “I am grateful to the voters for lying faith in me for the second time. We were successful in consolidating our base for which he had continuously worked after we managed to win with an extremely narrow margin 816 votes,” he added.
In Punahana, the BJP remained in third place, but its vote share significantly declined. Mohammad Aizaz Khan, the party’s candidate in 2024, garnered just 5,072 votes, compared to Nauksham Chaudhary’s 21,421 votes in 2019.