BJP candidate Sonali Phogat has lost the race for the Adampur Assembly seat in Haryana, coming second to the Congress’s Kuldeep Bishnoi, a three-time MLA from the constituency, by nearly 30,000 votes. Earlier in the day Ms Phogat, who became famous with her TikTok videos, had said she was confident both the party and she would emerge victorious. “As the talks are going on everywhere that BJP is going to win these elections, I am sure, in Adampur as well, BJP will win,” she told ANI before counting began.

Kuldeep Bishnoi polled more than 64,000 votes, while Sonali Phogat managed only around 34,000. Ramesh Kumar of Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) came third with around 15,000 votes. In terms of percentage of votes, Ms Phogat managed 27.8 to Kuldeep Bishnoi’s 51.66. Ramesh Kumar recorded 12.55 per cent.

During the campaign trail Ms Phogat had compared the fight for Adampur to that for the Amethi Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, which was a Gandhi family stronghold till BJP leader and Union Minister Smriti Irani beat Rahul Gandhi in April-May national polls.

“This (Adampur, which has voted for Kuldeep Bishnoi and his family for 50 years) is like Amethi was the bastion of the Gandhi family. But there is no development here,” she said earlier this month, adding that Mr Bishnoi, the son of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Bishnoi, had only “inherited” the seat.

Mr Bishnoi had hit back by pointing to the establishment of schools and hospitals in the constituency.

“Popularity on TikTok does not count. Popularity of work counts. This place had only one school. Now there are schools and hospitals. If she can’t see all this she needs to get her eyes checked,” he said.

The BJP has suffered an unexpected setback in Haryana, where it had targeted winning at least 75 of the 90 seats in the Assembly. The party has hovered around the 40-seat mark all day, with the Congress close behind on 30. Mr Chautala’s JJP, which is set to play a crucial role in government formation in the state, has around 10 seats.

“We will try to introspect why we fell short of the target we had set for ourselves,” BJP vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe told NDTV.

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