DW BUREAU / chandigarh Ruling BJP and opposition parties on Monday welcomed the announcement of 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. The bypoll is going to be a litmus test for Bishnoi, younger son of former chief minister late Bhajan Lal, as the seat has been their stronghold for the past five decades. Bypolls to seven vacant assembly seats spread across six states including Adampur seat in Haryana will be held on November 3, the Election Commission announced on Monday. At present, in the 90-member Haryana Assembly, while Adampur seat is vacant, BJP has 40 BJP MLAs, 10 are from ally Jannayak Janta Party, Congress has 30, seven are independents and one each legislator is from Indian National Lok Dal and Haryana Lokhit Party. "Welcome the announcement of the by-election for 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. He is a four-time MLA and two-time MP. Bishnoi (54) had joined the BJP on August 4 nearly two months after he was expelled by the 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. Bishnoi's son Bhavya Bishnoi, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Hisar, had also quit the Congress in August. Welcoming the announcement of bypolls, Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda claimed Adampur has been a Congress stronghold from the beginning and his party's victory is certain, like Baroda by-election in Sonipat district two years ago. He claimed the BJP-led government has no achievement to showcase in Adampur and entire Haryana. "Every section of the state is unhappy with policies and actions of this government. Today children are worried about the closure of schools, elderly about the deduction of old age pension. The youth are facing the brunt of unemployment, while the farmers are facing rising costs and decreasing income," the former chief minister said in a statement. "Not only this, during 8 years the state did not get any big project, any big industry or institute. No new power plant was installed, no medical college or big university was built. In such a situation, on what basis would the government ask for votes in the by-election," Hooda questioned. Hitting out at Bishnoi, Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan said, "the way he betrayed party and people of the constituency, people will teach him a lesson". "Bishnoi 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," Bhan said. Bishnoi had earlier said while his party BJP will decide who will contest the bypoll from Adampur but he and people want that his son Bhavya Bishnoi contest from there. (editor@dailyworld.in)