Gupta led in 162 polling stations, INLD fared badly in ‘stronghold’ Barwala

Some of the villages where the INLD got a lead were Nada, Alipur, Manka, Billa, Jaswantgarh, Bunga, Toka and Bhagwanpura. It got the maximum lead of 20 in each of the two polling stations at Nada.

Commented a party leader, “We had a stronghold in Barwala for years, and we expected most of the votes from villages. The performance is disappointing. The decision to field a non-political person as a candidate has backfired.’’

However, Goyal attributed the defeat to the Modi wave.

“We gave our best to the campaign, but the Modi wave has led to our defeat. Moreover, INLD was not accepted by the people in the last election too,” said Goyal, adding that he would continue working for the welfare of the people.

The party had assumed that it would get most of the rural votes, and by fielding Goyal, a local businessman, it would get urban votes. But Goyal failed to get the urban votes as well.

In some of the polling stations in the town, the INLD was restricted to less than 50 votes. In a polling station in Sector 17, it got only 10 votes, in Sector 16 only 23 votes, in Sector 4 only 29 votes, and only 25 votes in a polling station in Sector 20.

Even where the INLD performed somewhat better, it remained behind the BJP. For example, in Sector 4, it got 129 votes, but the BJP got 706. In Sector 6, where Goyal stays, he got only 351 of the 1,370 votes polled. see also page 4