Gurugram The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), yet again, failed to open its account in Mewat, with the Congress winning all three seats in the district. The Meo-Muslim concentrated region has always been a weak spot for the BJP. In the 2014 Haryana assembly polls, notwithstanding the ‘Modi wave’, the BJP had not won in any of the three constituencies in the district — Nuh, Punhana and Ferozepur Jhirka.
The Congress has returned to the district after a five-year gap. The biggest win was pulled off by Mamman Khan in Ferozepur Jhirka, who won by a margin of 37,004 votes to BJP’s Naseem Ahmed, receiving 84,546 and 47,542 votes, respectively. Contesting on a BJP ticket seems to have backfired for Ahmed, who had won on an INLD ticket in 2014. Ahmed had initially switched over to the Congress days before the general elections, but later joined the BJP in August.
BJP’s gamble of fielding rookie Nauksham Chaudhary in Punhana also failed to reap dividends. Three-time MLA Mohammad Ilyas (64), who joined the Congress during the Lok Sabha polls, after quitting the INLD and JJP in quick succession, won the seat by a margin of 816 votes. Ilyas received 35,092 votes, while his nearest rival and incumbent MLA, Rahish Khan, got 34,276 votes. Khan won the seat as an Independent candidate in 2014 and had joined the BJP recently, in the hope of getting a ticket but was sidelined. Chaudhary came third with 21,421 votes.
A confident Ilyas, on Thursday, said that he would work for the region’s development, regardless of who formed the government. “If our government is formed, I will ensure that Mewat gets a water canal, university and resolve the issue of drivers’ licence,” said Ilyas.
{{/usCountry}}A confident Ilyas, on Thursday, said that he would work for the region’s development, regardless of who formed the government. “If our government is formed, I will ensure that Mewat gets a water canal, university and resolve the issue of drivers’ licence,” said Ilyas.
{{/usCountry}}Reacting to the BJP’s loss, he said that the party had suffered because of its unfair intentions towards Muslims. “The party has deliberately stalled development in Mewat. It focused more on dividing communities, but its ideology was defeated,” he said.
In Nuh, BJP’s Zakir Hussain, the incumbent MLA, lost to Congress’s Aftab Ahmed, who won by a margin of 4,038 votes, despite leading the count through the morning. Ahmed received 52,311 votes, while three-time MLA Hussain secured 48,273 votes. In the 2014 Vidhan Sabha elections, Hussain had won by more than half of the votes polled in Nuh, but couldn’t replicate the win after switching to the BJP from the INLD.
Hussain’s addition, however, seemed to have benefited the BJP, with the party almost doubling the number of votes it received in the constituency. In 2014, BJP candidate Sanjay had received 24,222 votes from the seat, almost half of what Hussain secured.
According to political analysts, besides the credentials of the contesting candidate, people in Mewat give strong preference to the party that the candidates align with. Their vote is not just a vote for the candidate in the fray, but a vote against the BJP. The BJP’s dismal performance in the district must be viewed as an effort by the electorate to keep the party out of the region.