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

As of 9.58 am, the Congress was leading in 36 constituencies, according to the Election Commission. The Bharatiya Janata Party was ahead in 38 seats.

The Indian National Lok Dal was ahead in one constituency.

While the poll panel had not updated the early trends from all constituencies, several news reports said that the Congress was ahead of the BJP in several seats of those seats.

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

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

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

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 also 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 will now hire soldiers below the rank of commissioned officers on four-year contracts; only a fourth of the soldiers will 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 the 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.

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