BJP's Bhavya Bishnoi has lost the Adampur assembly constituency to Congress leader Chander Prakash by a narrow margin of 1268 votes. Bhavya Bishnoi is the grandson of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal. This is the first time someone from the Lal family has lost this family seat.
Adampur is among the key bastions in state politics due to the long-standing influence of the Bishnoi family, especially three-time CM Bhajan Lal. This year, the former CM's grandson Bhavya was pitted against Congress' Chander Parkash Jangra and Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Bhupender Beniwal.
Bishnoi fought a three-way contest to keep the Bishnoi family's political dominance alive. His opponents, on the other hand, aimed at making a dent in the Bishnoi family's hold on the assembly seat. The Congress succeeded in that.
Bishnoi family's political legacy
Bhajan Lal's son Kuldeep Bishnoi and now grandson Bhavya continued the family's political dominance in the constituency in the past. Bhajan Lal dominated the Adampur constituency for four terms from 1968 to 1982 and then went onto reestablish his control over the constituency for another four terms from 1991 to 2005. Later, his son Kuldeep Bishnoi took over the mantle in the 2009 assembly polls on a Haryana Janhit Congress-Bhajan Lal (HJC-BL) ticket.
Kuldeep Bishnoi founded the HJC-BL after he was ousted from the Congress following his criticism of the then CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda. He criticised Hooda for harming farmers' interests by promoting special economic zones on fertile land.
He retained the seat till August 2022, when he resigned to join the BJP. Following this, a bypoll was conducted. In this bypoll, Bhavya Bishnoi won with 67,492 votes and a vote share of 51.50 per cent. He defeated Congress' Jai Parkash by a margin of 15,740 votes.
Bhavya Bishnoi is also the BJP's first parliamentary candidate to design a constituency-focused manifesto. At present, he is the youngest member of the Haryana Legislative Assembly.
Adampur voter base
The assembly seat is known for its agricultural landscape and has a mix of rural and semi-urban populations. Largely dominated by Jats, Adampur's voter base also comprises communities such as the Brahmins, Scheduled Castes (SC), and Other Backward Classes (OBC). The Jat community has a crucial role in dictating the electoral outcome in this constituency.