NEW DELHI: Initial exit polls released on Saturday predicted a Congress sweep in Haryana with the party winning around 55 seats, the BJP 25 seats, INLD 3 seats, JJP 1 seat and others around 6 seats.
Congress will get more than 65 seats: Hooda
In his first reaction to the exit poll results, senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda said: “I feel that we will win 65 plus-minus seats. Congress will form the government with a thumping majority.”
Congress candidate from Panchkula assembly seat Chander Mohan said: “Congress will win 70 seats and BJP will get 17.We will form a government with full majority.”
Confident BJP will form govt again: CM saini
Haryana CM and BJP leader Nayab Singh Saini said he was “confident that the BJP would form the government again with a complete majority on October 8”.
“BJP will form the government with full majority. We are confident. Work has been done for every section of society in the last 10 years, and the state has been freed from regionalism and dynastic politics,” said Saini on the exit poll predictions.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Anil Vij also exuded confidence, stating: “Exit poll ki pol pehle bhi khul chuki hai’. People are still casting their votes and people are standing in line. The last person is yet to cast the vote. The total percentage has not been out yet … Exit poll will be proved wrong and the BJP will form government. On October 8, BJP will form government again.”
What pollsters said
As per pollster Matrize, Congress is expected to win 55-62 seats, BJP 18-24, INLD 3-6, JJP 0-3 and others 2-5 seats.
Peoples Pulse has predicted that the Congress will secure around 49-61 seats, BJP 20-32, INLD 2-3, JJP 0-1 and others 3-5 seats.
Dhruv Research has predicted that the Congress will win around 50-64 seats, BJP 22-32 seats, and others 2-8.
According to Dainik Bhaskar, Congress is predicted to secure 44-54 seats, BJP 15-29, JJP 0-1, INLD 1-5, AAP 0-1 and other 4-9 seats.
As per P-Marq, Congress may win around 56 seats, BJP 31, and INLD 3 seats.
The 90 seats of Haryana went to the polls in a single phase on October 5. The majority mark is 46 seats.
The exit polls for the Haryana assembly elections were released shortly after voting concluded around 6pm.
The exit polls results give an indication of what the political landscape may look like after results are officially declared by the Election Commission on October 8.
The outcome of the elections is expected to have broader implications for national politics and may hold clues of how Maharashtra and Jharkhand — which will go to the polls by the end of the year — will vote.
BJP’s Nayab Singh Saini’s government faced challenges from opposition parties like Congress and AAP, who leveraged local issues, specially farmers’ rights, to gain traction among voters.
The BJP is aiming to secure a third consecutive term, but the opposition’s strategies may challenge its hold on power.
The main issues that influenced voters included agricultural distress such as farmers’ grievances, particularly crop prices and debt. Youth employment has also been a major poll issue with the Congress attacking several of the Centre’s schemes including Agnipath.
Haryana recorded 61% voter turnout till 5pm on Saturday across all the 90 assembly seats in the single-phase assembly polls in the state.
According to the data of the Election Commission of India, Mewat lead with 68.28% voter turnout while Gurugram has recorded the lowest voter turnout of 49.97% till 5 pm.
A total of 1,031 candidates contested in 90 assembly constituencies, and 20,632 polling booths were set up for voting. The votes will be counted on October 8 for both Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir.
In the 2019 Assembly elections, the BJP had won 40 of the 90 seats, forming a coalition government with the JJP, which won 10 seats. The Congress secured 31 seats. However, JJP later broke out of the coalition.