BJP Leads In Haryana Thriller, Congress-NC Races Ahead in J&K Assembly Polls: Early Trends – News18

Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir Assembly Election Results Updates: Haryana is set for a neck-and-neck fight, with the Congress and BJP trying to outdo each other as votes are counted for the assembly elections in the state. After initial trends indicated a comfortable victory for the Congress, in a turn of fortunes, the BJP is now leading in Haryana. The Grand Old Party, meanwhile, has left the BJP behind in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir where it has tied up with National Conference.

As Congress workers kick-started celebrations outside the party headquarters in New Delhi after early trends indicating that the party had a chance to return to power in Haryana after a decade, chief minister Nayab Singh Saini expressed confidence that the BJP will form the government for the third straight time.

In the last assembly elections in Haryana in 2019, the BJP had won 40 seats, the Congress 31 and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) 10. The BJP formed the government with the support of the JJP and Dushyant Chautala became the deputy chief minister. The post-poll alliance ended when Saini became the chief minister.

For the BJP, winning Haryana is also crucial for optics as the party looks to better its Lok Sabha election performance where it won five of 10 seats after sweeping all of them in 2019.

A buoyant Congress, riding high on the Lok Sabha success after being written off in the blitzkrieg unleashed by the BJP behemoth, is confident of a resurgence with the Haryana results.

The Jammu and Kashmir trends too seem to be favouring the Congress. These are the first elections in the erstwhile state since Article 370 was scrapped in August 2019 and the first since 2014.

In early leads, the Congress-National Conference alliance has rushed past the BJP, with the latter powering the push. The trends are a positive indication for the state party, which won only 15 seats in the last assembly election in J&K.

For now, the Grand Old Party seems to be ahead in the race to control the former state’s 95 assembly seats of which five were nominated by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Monday in a controversial move.