Almost half of BJP’s sitting MLAs lose in Haryana

CHANDIGARH: Almost half of ruling BJP’s sitting MLAs lost the elections, including eight ministers, as Haryana threw up a fractured mandate on Thursday.nnThe losers included ministers Ram Bilas Sharma, Capt Abhimanyu and O P Dhankar.nnSome of the prominent legislators who lost included Latika Sharma, Prem Lata, Bakshish Singh Virk and Bhagwan Dass Kabirpanthi.nnAs many as 21 sitting MLAs of the BJP lost to their rivals and at the same time more than half of the sitting legislators emerged as winners.nnThe prominent winners are chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Anil Vij, Banwari Lal and Gian Chand Gupta.nnIn the Congress camp, 9 members retained their seats while seven lost.nnProminent losers included Randeep Singh Surjewala, Karan Singh Dalal, Chander Mohan while those who won are former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Geeta Bhukkal, Kiran Choudhary and Chiranjeev Rao.nnIn the previous polls in 2014, BJP had won 47 seats, Congress 17, INLD 19, SAD and BSP one each and there were five Independents.nnSource: Press Trust of India