The BJP pulled off a hat trick in Haryana on Tuesday, bettering its 2019 performance to score a majority in the northern state. In Jammu and Kashmir, I.N.D.I.A bloc allies Congress and National Conference looked set to form the Union territory’s first government.
While the BJP has won 48 of Haryana’s 90 seats, the Congress’ tally stands at 37 (36 declared won, leading in 1, as of 8.30 pm). Former Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), which played kingmaker in 2019, hasn't won a single seat. The results have proved dismal overall for the powerful Chautala clan, with the Om Prakash Chautala-led Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) winning just 2 seats.
In Jammu & Kashmir, the National Conference (NC) has won 42 of the 90 assembly seats, and the Congress, 6, taking the coalition to a comfortable majority. The BJP’s 29 seats mark its best-ever tally in J&K. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), led by former CM Mehbooba Mufti, has got all of 3 seats — its popularity having suffered heavily over its brief alliance with the BJP after the 2014 election.
The Congress, which was touted as a favourite to win the Haryana election, said it could not accept the verdict even as it hailed the results in J&K.
"We cannot accept this... We are collecting complaints. Our candidates have given complaints to the returning officers there [in Haryana] and are still giving them. In the coming days, we will soon go to the Election Commission with all these complaints and register our complaint there," said Pawan Khera, chairman of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Media & Publicity Deptartment. "This kind of result was not visible anywhere on the ground. No one can believe that such an unexpected result will come in Haryana. We are all surprised."
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said the party would introspect on why the results went the way they did, but added, “...The Congress has been made to lose in Haryana, the Congress has not lost.”
Haryana Chief Minister and BJP leader Nayab Singh Saini said the party was ready to serve the state for a third term, as he expressed gratitude to voters for the victory.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, among the BJP’s star campaigners in Haryana, extended “hearty congratulations to all the dedicated workers, office-bearers and respected voters for the historic victory” of the party in the state.
“This victory, dedicated to the achievement of the concept of ‘Developed Haryana - Developed India’, is a stamp of people’s faith on the public-welfare policies of the Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the efficient leadership of the Honorable Chief Minister Shri Nayab Singh Saini, and the power of the double-engine BJP government,” he added.
How Haryana Voted
Every exit poll had predicted the BJP’s defeat in this election, with analysts noting that the party would suffer a hard knock on account of farmer anger, and a sense of disenchantment in light of the wrestlers’ protest against alleged sexual harassment by former BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the former chief of the Wrestling Federation of India.
The campaign this time was largely led by the local leadership, with PM Narendra Modi visiting the state all of 4 times for rallies, down from 10 in 2014, as noted in a report by ThePrint.
The 2014 election, held months after Modi’s sweeping win in the Lok Sabha polls, marked the first time the BJP led a government in the state. The reduction in Modi's campaign presence, ThePrint report noted, was seen by analysts as an attempt to place greater reliance on the local machinery as the BJP battled anti-incumbency, with voters seen to be focusing more on local issues than national narratives.
Prominent winners included former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress (victory margin of over 71,000 votes in Garhi Sampla - Kiloi), Independent Savitri Jindal (margin of nearly 19,000 votes in Hisar), Nayab Singh Saini (margin of over 16,000 in Ladwa), Vinesh Phogat (margin of over 6,000 votes in Julana), and Anil Vij (margin of over 7,000 votes in Ambala Cantt).
The BJP's vote share stands at 39.94% against the Congress' 39.09%.
Verdict J&K
This was an election of many firsts in J&K: It was the first since 2014, and the first since its special status was abolished in 2019, when the erstwhile state was also bifurcated (Ladakh carved out) and recategorised as a Union territory. The election is also the first assembly polls since the delimitation exercise saw the number of seats for J&K increase to 90 from 83 (the previous assembly, which also included Ladakh, had 87 seats).
The results were largely in line with exit polls, which had predicted a clear lead for the I.N.D.I.A bloc.
Former CM Omar Abdullah of the NC marked the result with a potshot at exit polls, which he had described as a “waste of time” over the weekend. “If you pay for exits (sic) polls or waste time discussing them you deserve all the jokes/memes/ridicule. There was a reason I called them a waste of time a few days ago,” he said.
Some of the major winners include Omar Abdullah (margin of over 36,000 votes from Budgam). The former CM has also won the second seat he contested from (margin of nearly 33,000 votes in Ganderbal). Sajad Lone of J&K People Conference has won as well (margin of nearly 30,000 votes from Handwara), as has Mohamad Yousuf Tarigami of Communist Party of India-Marxist (margin of nearly 34,000 votes, Kulgam). Mehraj Malik has won the Aam Aadmi Party’s first ever seat in J&K, Doda, by a margin of over 23,200 votes.
While the NC and the Congress have a vote share of 23.43% and 11.97%. The BJP's vote share is 25.64%.