Mahendragarh Assembly Election Results 2024: Kanwar Singh wins Jat-Ahir stronghold, Rao Dan Singh loses

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sprung a surprise in Haryana's Mahendragarh assembly constituency. BJP's Kanwar Singh has won from the seat with a margin of 2,648 votes. The BJP leader secured more than 63,000 votes whereas his Congress rival Rao Dan Singh garnered over 60,000 votes, as per the Election Commission data.

Mahendragarh is one of the key constituencies to bag for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and regional parties such as Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) due to the substantial concentration of Jat and Ahir communities. The assembly constituency is strategic due to its location in the National Capital Region (NCR) and around 100 kilometres from Gurugram. 

This time, Congress veteran Rao Dan Singh, BJP's Kunwar Singh Yadav and INLD's Surender Kaushik were in a three-way battle to woo the Jat and Ahir bastion. Apart from his experience, Rao Dan Singh had several factors working for him in the assembly seat. 

The Congress veteran was popular as he is a local leader having a strong ground connect and strong incumbency. Rao Dan Singh is also widely respected for his work in addressing farmers' issues and rural development, which could give him an edge over his opponents. 

Singh also presented a plan for water management, which can resonate well with the farmer community in Mahendragarh. Moreover, Singh also campaigned on creating local job opportunities, promoting industrial growth, or advocating for state-sponsored employment schemes. 

Despite his strengths, Rao Dan Singh was faced with challenges areas such as industrial development, unemployment rates, and a lack of investment in service sector in the state. Other issues that bother the voters in rural areas include poor road infrastructure, the lack of public transport, subpar healthcare facilities, lackadaisical education infrastructure. 

He is also facing the voters' anger as a section of voters believes that he has fulfilled his past promises, especially in areas with wide developmental gaps. Besides this, he is also facing the challenge of winning with an increased margin as compared to the 2019 assembly election. 

In 2019, Rao Dan Singh won the seat by securing 46,478 votes and a vote share of 32.43 per cent. BJP's Ram Bilas Sharma, a strong leader in his own right, was a close second with 36,258 votes in his kitty and a vote share of 25.30 per cent. 

The contest can be particularly challenging for the BJP due to Jats' chagrin over multiple issues such as the saffron party's failure to place a Jat leader as the CM of Haryana, the Agniveer issue, and wrestlers' protests among others.

Moreover, the BJP's focus on broader national schemes may not be helpful in addressing the locals' issues such as water scarcity, crop prices, and irregular electricity supply. Another challenge that the BJP faces in Mahendragarh at present is in the form of Independent candidate Sandeep Singh, who secured a significant number of votes and a decent vote share in the 2019 state elections.

Such candidates are like a double-edged sword, i.e., they often split the anti-BJP vote but also complicate the BJP's chances at forming a solid voter base in Mahendragarh. The voter base can tilt in favour of the non-BJP candidate if the independents attract dissatisfaction from both the Congress and the BJP voters.