Ruling BJP and opposition parties on Monday welcomed the announcement of a bypoll for the Adampur assembly seat in Haryana, with senior saffron outfit leader Kuldeep Bishnoi saying "as usual the victory will be of Adampur".
Bishnoi's resignation as the Congress MLA in August necessitated a bypoll for the Adampur seat in Hisar district.
Bypolls to seven vacant assembly seats spread across six states including the Adampur seat in Haryana will be held on November 3, the Election Commission announced on Monday.
"Welcome the announcement of the by-election for the Adampur seat. The wait is over. Once again Adampur will face the opponents, and as usual, the victory will be of Adampur," the former MLA Bishnoi said in a tweet in Hindi.
Bishnoi (54) joined the BJP on August 4 nearly two months after he was expelled by Congress from all party positions for defying its whip and voting for the ruling party-backed candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls.
Bishnoi's decision to not vote for Congress candidate Ajay Maken in the Rajya Sabha polls in June led to his defeat by a narrow margin to independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma, who was backed by the BJP.
The notification for the November 3 bypolls will be issued on October 7 and the counting of votes will take place on November 6, the EC said in a statement.
Welcoming the announcement of bypolls, Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan said Adampur has always been a Congress stronghold.
Hitting out at Bishnoi, the Congress leader said, "the way he betrayed party and people of the constituency, people will teach him a lesson".
Taking a further dig at Bishnoi, Bhan said, "He is yet to decide whether he or his son will contest the bypoll. BJP may name either of the two as their candidate or anyone else, but Congress is ready and we will win."
Aam Aadmi Party senior leader and party's Haryana affairs in charge Sushil Gupta said the AAP will strongly fight the election and win.
"Corruption and parivarvaad will have to be ended. BJP talks against parivarvaad (dynastic system), but what are we seeing in Adampur?" asked Gupta.
He claimed that no development work took place in Adampur, roads are in bad shape and the state of education is a mess.
"People of Adampur are mainly into agriculture and farmers are unhappy with the present government on several issues. They also know the way this government behaved with them during the stir against farm laws," he said.
Bishnoi's son Bhavya Bishnoi, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Hisar, had also quit the Congress in August.
Bishnoi, a four-time MLA, and two-time MP had been sulking ever since Congress ignored him for the post of its Haryana unit chief during a revamp earlier this year.
Bishnoi had earlier said while his party BJP will decide who will contest the bypoll from Adampur but he and the people want that his son Bhavya Bishnoi to contest from there.
He, had, however, said they will accept the party's decision.
(Inputs from PTI)
