Chautalas' stronghold in Sirsa decimated

SIRSA: Like another former chief minister Bhajan Lal’s stronghold Adampur , former deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal’s bastion Sirsa was also breached this Thursday. BJP’s first ever independent victory in Sirsa saw to it that neither INLD nor JJP candidates could save their security deposit in the Chautalas’ pocket borough.

To top it all, even the Dera Sacha Sauda, which has its headquarters in Sirsa, also seemed ineffective this time.

BJP’s Sunita Duggal, who had resigned from prestigious IRS in 2014, reaped the reward of her five years’ work in the area and the Modi wave. Duggal defeated former MP and Congress state chief Ashok Tanwar by a margin of 3,09,918 votes. At 7,14,351, she secured more than half of the total 13,69,486 votes polled in Sirsa. Tanwar got 4,04,433, INLD candidate Charanjit Singh Rori got 88,093 and JJP candidate Nirmal Singh Malri got 95,914 votes.

Duggal did not face trail in any of the assembly segments falling under Sirsa parliamentary seat. Fatehabad, Narwana, Sirsa and Ratiya segments gave her best support while she got a tough competition from BJP state president Subhash Barla’s constituency Tohana and Dushyant Chautal’s mother Nain Chautala’s constituency Dabwali. She got a lead of 75,896 votes form Fatehabad, 51,026 in Narwala, and 41,389 votes lead in Sirsa assembly segments. Her lead was lowest in Tohana at 8,868 votes. Even in Dabwali, her contest was with Tanwar but she managed a lead of nearly 10,000 votes.

In the same way, in Ratia assembly of Fatehabad district, Duggal got 89,994 votes, while Tanwar got 50,312. Even in Ellenabad, which is represented in the state assembly by INLD’s Abhay Chautala, BJP got 72,593 votes, Congress 37,934, INLD 18,749 and JJP candidate 7,045. In Rania constituency, Duggal got 71,154, Tanwar 43,485, Roti 13,272, and Marli 6,632.

Talking to TOI, Duggal said that the people of Sirsa have put a stamp of approval on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies. Taking a swipe on the opposition, she said that people of Sirsa completely rejected those who were doing nothing. She said that stopping drug abuse in Sirsa would be her priority and while ensuring all around development of Sirsa, she will make serious efforts to start some central government projects in the area.