Chandigarh: Congress, which was eyeing a record third term in Haryana on development plank, could win only three of six assembly seats where party president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi held election rallies in favour of its nominees.
Sonia held election rallies at Meham and Tosham assembly seats while Rahul addressed meetings at Firozepur Jhirka, Rewari and Ganaur. Both Sonia and Rahul also addressed separate election rallies at Sirsa.
In Sirsa seat, INLD candidate Makhan Singh Singla trounced Haryana Lokhit Party president Gopal Kanda by a margin of 2,938 votes. Singla polled 46,573 votes. Congress party performed badly in this seat with its candidate Naveen Kumar Kedia coming fourth by securing just 9,779 votes.
In Firozepur Jhirka, INLD nominee Naseem Ahmed defeated Independent candidate Mamman Khan by 3,245 votes. Congress candidate Azad Mohammad was at fifth position by securing 15,943 votes.
Congress candidate and six-time MLA from Rewari Captain Ajay Singh Yadav also failed to register win and lost his traditional seat. Yadav polled 31,471 votes and came third.
BJP candidate Randhir Singh Kapriwas won the Rewari seat with a margin of 45,466 votes by defeating his nearest rival Satish Yadav of INLD.
Meanwhile, Congress managed to win the Meham seat with party nominee Anand Singh Dangi defeating BJP candidate Shamsher Singh Kharkara by 9,657 votes.
Haryana minister and Congress candidate Kiran Choudhry was successful in retaining her Tosham seat as she defeated her nearest rival Kamla Rani of INLD by 19,741 votes. Haryana speaker and Congress nominee Kuldeep Sharma defeated INLD candidate Nirmal Rani by 7,543 votes from Ganaur seat.
In no-holds-barred attack, Sonia Gandhi had slammed the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and accused it of failing in fulfilling the polls promises after coming to power and charged the BJP-led regime with taking credit of policies framed by previous UPA government.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had launched a scathing attack on the BJP government, claiming it was befooling the common people and working only to protect the interests of the rich and powerful.
