Congress sweeps through Haryana

Except for Sonipat which has been retained by BJP, the opposition Congress swept through Haryana winning remaining nine seats, including all five won by ruling INLD in 1999.

Except for Sonipat which has been retained by BJP, the opposition Congress swept through Haryana winning remaining nine seats - annexing all five won by ruling INLD in 1999 and four from BJP.

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Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala's son Ajay, seeking re-election from Bhiwani, and Abhay, an MLA in state assembly, fielded from Kurukshetra as also Surender Singh, son of former Chief Minister Bansi Lal (Bhiwani) and Union Minister I D Swami (Karnal) were the main losers.

Congress gained four seats of Mahendragarh, Karnal, Faridabad and Ambala from BJP and five seats of Rohtak, Kurukshetra, Bhiwani, Hissar and Sirsa from Chautala led INLD.

Selja won from Ambala with the highest margin of 2,34,394 votes over her nearest rival Rattan Lal Kataria (BJP) while his party colleague Kishen Singh Sangwan retained the Sonipat seat with the lowest margin - 7522 - beating former Haryana Congress Chief Dharampal Singh Malik.

Krishna Malik (INLD), wife of Haryana DGP MS Malik who had gone on leave following Election Commission's directions for his removal before the election, finished third.