Haryana election result: BJP maintains clear lead over Congress

The counting of votes for the Haryana Assembly elections is underway.

As of 5:00 pm, the Bharatiya Janata Party was declared the winner in 29 seats and was ahead in 20 others, according to Election Commission data.

The Congress had won 28 seats and was leading in 8 others. The Indian National Lok Dal was ahead in two constituencies.

Independent candidates had won two seats and were leading in one other, Election Commission data showed.

The Legislative Assembly in Haryana has 90 members and 46 seats are required for a majority.

The Assembly polls in the state took place in a single phase on Saturday. A turnout of 67.9% was recorded.

Most exit polls had projected the Congress to win a clear majority.

Amid the counting of votes, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh stated that the party had filed a complaint with the Election Commission, alleging a delay in updating the leads and results of the polls, ANI reported.

In its letter to the poll panel, the party claimed that uploading of the results on the Election Commission’s website had slowed down between 9 am and 11 am.

“As you can imagine this allows bad faith actors to spin narratives that undermine the process,” said the Congress. “Our fear is also that such narratives can then be used by these mala fide actors to influence processes where counting is still underway, i.e., in most of the counting centres.”

Background

The BJP, which is fighting to win a third consecutive term, is facing a challenge from the Congress led by former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The Indian National Lok Dal tied up with the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janata Party allied with MP Chandrashekhar Azad’s Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram).

The Aam Aadmi Party, which is the Congress’ ally at the national level, contested the polls alone.

There was dissatisfaction among the voters fuelled by concerns about livelihood and inflation.

The Agnipath scheme, introduced by the BJP-led Union government in 2022, alienated voters in a state that traditionally sends more personnel to the armed forces than most others. According to the scheme, the armed forces hire soldiers below the rank of commissioned officers on four-year contracts and only a fourth of them get permanent tenure. This has made recruitment into the forces less attractive.

There was public anger about the harsh treatment of those who participated in several protests against the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state over the years. These protestors included farmers, wrestlers, sarpanches and Anganwadi workers.

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In the 2019 Haryana elections, the BJP won 40 seats in the 90-member Assembly. Having fallen short of the majority mark, it had formed the government with the support of the Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Party. The Congress had won 31 seats.

Manohar Lal Khattar, who had been the state’s chief minister since October 2014, retained his position and Chautala became his deputy.

In March, weeks ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP replaced Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini as the chief minister. The ties between the Hindutva party and the Jannayak Janta Party also snapped, leading to Chautala’s resignation.

In the recent general election, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and the Opposition INDIA bloc won five seats each. Haryana has 10 Lok Sabha constituencies. The BJP had won all 10 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Also read: Organised chaos: Why BJP is encouraging multiple chief minister claimants in Haryana