INC candidate Indu Raj leads over BJP’s Yogeshwar Dutt in Baroda bypoll in Haryana

Congress candidate Indu Raj Narwal is pacing ahead of his nearest rival and BJP nominee Yogeshwar Dutt by a margin 1,021 votes from the Baroda Assembly seat in Haryana, as per initial trends.

Congress candidate Indu Raj Narwal is pacing ahead of his nearest rival and BJP nominee Yogeshwar Dutt by a margin 1,021 votes from the Baroda Assembly seat in Haryana, as per initial trends.

The counting of votes for the bypoll to the Baroda Assembly in Haryana seat began at 8 am on Tuesday. There will be 20 rounds of counting. The polling on November 3 for the Baroda Assembly seat had registered an overall turnout of 68.57 per cent, locking the fate of 14 candidates.

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The death of Congress MLA Shri Krishan Hooda left a vacuum in the Baroda Assembly seat in April, who had won it thrice consecutively in 2009, 2014 and 2019 Assembly polls. Yogeshwar Dutt is an Indian freestyle wrestler who joined BJP in September 2019. The wrestler-turned-politician, who hails from Bhainswal Kalan in Sonepat district had lost the October 2019 assembly election to Sri Krishan Hooda by about 4,800 votes. Dutt, who won the bronze medal in the 2012 Olympic Games and gold medal in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, was awarded the Padma Shri in 2013.

Indu Raj Narwal is a former Sonipat Zila Parishad member. Congress finalized Narwal as a candidate while considering his vote bank that comprises a substantial chunk of votes in Baroda Assembly segment. Since the Assembly constituency is a Jat community dominated belt with over 49 per cent voters belonging to Jat community, INLD’s Joginder Malik and Independent candidate Kapoor Narwal were predicted to likely create a divide in the vote bank.