BJP all set to retain Haryana

NEW DELHI: The ruling BJP was all set to retain power in Haryana, leading in 49 seats and halting a Congress comeback in the state after a decade, according to the latest trends available on the Election Commission website.

The Congress was ahead in 36 seats, Independents in 3 and the INLD in 2 seats, the trends showed.

Among prominent candidates, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Independent candidate Savitri Jindal won while INLD's Abhay Singh Chautala lost and JJP's Dushyant Chautala was trailing, according to the trends available at 4.15 pm.

Among other losers included Haryana assembly speaker and BJP's Gian Chand Gupta, Haryana Lokhit Party Gopal Kanda and BJP leader O P Dhankar.

From Julana seat, Congress's Vinesh Phogat registered a victory defeating her nearest BJP rival Yogesh Kumar by a margin of 6,015 votes.

The Aam Aadmi Party has drawn a blank.

The counting of votes began at 8 am amid tight security. Several exit polls had predicted a comfortable victory for the Congress in Haryana but the BJP consolidated as the counting progressed.

As the BJP is all set to retain power for a third consecutive term, party workers and leaders were a jubilant lot, in a sharp contrast to the mood in the Congress camp, where celebrations began early but the scene changed as the saffron party surged ahead.

The BJP, which rode to power in Haryana for the first time on its own strength in 2014, had then won 47 of the 90 seats. Manohar Lal Khattar, a first-time MLA, was picked up as the CM face by the party then.

In the outgoing assembly, the BJP has 41 MLAs (including the Adampur seat won in 2022 bypoll), the Congress has 28 MLAs, the JJP (6), while the Haryana Lokhit Party and Indian National Lok Dal have one member each.

There are four Independents, while nine seats are vacant.

Chief Minister Saini won the Ladwa assembly seat by a margin of more than 16,000 votes defeating his nearest Congress rival while Hooda retained his Garhi Sampla-Kiloi seat in Rohtak district.

Savitri Jindal, who contested as an Independent after failing to get BJP's nomination, won the Hisar seat.

According to the latest EC trends, Congress' Brijendra Singh was leading over his nearest BJP rival Devinder Attri, while sitting MLA and JJP leader Dushyant Chautala was trailing.

Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Chautala, the sitting MLA from Ellenabad, lost to Congress candidate Bharat Singh Beniwal by a margin of 15,000 votes.

However, his son and INLD candidate Arjun Chautala was leading from the Rania seat over his granduncle and Independent candidate Ranjit Chautala.

In Ateli, BJP's Arti Singh Rao, daughter of Union Minister and BJP MP from Gurgaon Rao Inderjit Singh, was leading.

Among BJP's other winners are Rao Narbir Singh (Badshahpur), Ranbir Gangwa (Barwala), Vipul Goel (Faridabad), Harvinder Kalyan (Gharaunda), Mukesh Sharma (Gurgaon), Krishan Lal Panwar (Israna), Shakti Rani Sharma (Kalka), Shyam Singh Rana (Radaur), Satpal Jamba (Pundri), Nikhil Madaan (Sonipat), Arvind Kumar Sharma (Gohana), Krishan Lal Middha (Jind), Ghanshyam Saraf (Bhiwani), Bimla Chaudhary (Pataudi), Gaurav Gautam (Palwal) and Satish Kumar (Faridabad NIT).

The BJP candidates who were leading included Anil Vij (Ambala Cantt), Jagmohan Anand (Karnal),Tejpal Tanwar (Sohna) and Mool Chand Sharma (Ballabgarh)

Haryana's Chief Electoral Officer Pankaj Agarwal said three-tier security arrangements were put in place at counting venues. Postal ballots were counted first, followed by the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

A total of 1,031 candidates, including 464 Independents and 101 women, are in the fray. Voting took place in a single phase on October 5.