A day ahead of the counting of ballots in the polling for the 90-member Haryana Assembly elections conducted in a single phase on October 5, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as its principal opposition Congress sounded confident of their respective victories.
The process of counting will commence at 8 a.m. on Tuesday. A majority of Exit Polls predicted the Congress would wrest power from the BJP in Haryana after remaining in opposition for 10 years.
Congress, which carried a high-decibel campaign under former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, is predicted to win 49-55 seats in the 90-member House. The majority mark for a party to form the government is 46.
However, predicting a historic win for the third consecutive term, Chief Minister and BJP candidate from Ladwa Assembly seat, Nayab Singh Saini, said they do not need any alliance as they would form the government on their own.
Besides, two-time Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda, the front-runner for the chief ministerial post, expressed confidence in the party forming a government in the state with a "thumping majority".
Backing his confident claim of Congress returning to the helm after a decade, Hooda told the media in Delhi that the vote share of the party increased in all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.
But former Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij, BJP candidate from Ambala Cantonment, said the results "will be out soon, and let it come. (Bhupinder) Hooda will realise his worth".
Reacting to Hooda's warning to criminals, advising them to quit crime or leave the state, Vij said: "If he (Hooda) truly means what he says, then the first thing he should do is cancel his bail and put himself in jail."
Ahead of the results, the party in charge of Haryana, Deepak Babaria met Hooda at the latter's residence in the national capital.
Hooda's parliamentarian son, Deepender Hooda, said the party workers had worked very hard.
"Tomorrow, the results of the Haryana Assembly elections will be in favour of the Congress party," a confident junior Hooda said in Delhi.
He said Exit Polls "are in place and they are showing the direction of Haryana. But, we also have some assessments at the grassroots. I can say with confidence that the Congress is forming the state government with a huge majority".
"Respecting the public verdict", a hopeful Congress leader and Member of Parliament from Sirsa, Kumari Selja, said as per the information emerging from the ground, the result is going to be very good. "We can safely say that we will get more than 60 seats."
On the next Chief Minister, she said: "Resolution gets passed in the CLP (Congress Legislative Party) meeting and then suggestions are sought from the MLAs. Eventually, the party high command decides this."
Meanwhile, on the chief ministerial face, junior Hooda said: "There is a complete process for this and this has been followed for years. There will be a meeting of the legislative party in which the leader of the legislative party will be elected. After this, whatever decision the central leadership takes, the Congress will take it forward."
The BJP, which has been at the helm since 2014, and the Congress, seeking to make a comeback after 10 years, are seen as major players.
However, Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) are also in the fray. Many Independents, mostly BJP rebels, have made the contest multi-cornered on several seats.
The BJP's vote share in the October 2019 Assembly election was 36.49 per cent when the party could not cross the halfway mark in the 90-member Assembly and stitched a post-poll alliance with the JJP.
Congress registered over 15 per cent rise in its vote share in 2024 in comparison to the 2019 Parliamentary election vote share.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pankaj Agarwal said 67.90 per cent voting took place in the election on Saturday.
The highest -- 75.36 per cent -- voting was recorded in the Sirsa district and the lowest -- 56.49 per cent -- voting was recorded in the Faridabad district.
Constituency-wise, the highest 80.61 per cent voting was recorded in Ellenabad and the lowest 48.27 per cent voting was in Badkhal.
(With inputs from IANS)
