New Delhi:

The Aam Aadmi Party will support the incoming National Conference government in Jammu and Kashmir, Arvind Kejriwal’s outfit has said. A letter of support has been given – from the party’s lone MLA – Mehraj Malik of the Doda constituency – to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.

One more seat in the NC’s corner will not change Chief Minister-elect Omar Abdullah’s fortunes; direct support from four independents means he has a majority of 46 in the 90-member House. But support – to the NC and not its alliance with the Congress – underlines the latter’s slide in status.

The NC-Congress alliance bucked exit poll predictions to win the J&K election.

The NC won 42 of the former state’s 90 Assembly seats but it was the Congress’ dire performance – winning just six seats compared to 12 in the last election – that made headlines.

The Congress’ return led to fierce criticism from allies, particularly after a dismal show in the Haryana election. It also emphasised its precarious position as INDIA bloc head.

Bloc member Shiv Sena (UBT) offered a scathing review of the Congress’ Haryana horror, calling out the party’s Delhi HQ for failing to reign in state leader Bhupinder Hooda and, significantly, not sharing seats with allies – either AAP or Samajwadi Party.

READ | “Arrogant, Overconfident”: Allies Twist Knife On Congress’ Haryana Loss

Failure to do so, the Maharashtra party fumed, may have cost the Congress a Haryana election it was supposed to win.That criticism came with the Maharashtra election – for which the Sena (UBT), the Congress, and Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction are expected to contest together – due later this year.

The AAP’s extension of support to the National Conference – and not the INDIA bloc – has also been seen as another Congress ally’s jab over the party’s failure to reach seat-share deals.

READ | Infighting To Jat Focus: 5 Factors Behind Congress’s Haryana Shock

The two parties – pushed together by Rahul Gandhi – held several rounds of talks for the Haryana election, but no deal was made, with a recalcitrant Bhupinder Hooda being blamed.

After the Haryana and J&K election results were announced, AAP MP Raghav Chadha, who had been tasked with leading his party’s talks with the Congress, posted a pointed message on X.

हमारी आरज़ू की फिक्र करते तो कुछ और बात होती,
हमारी हसरत का ख्याल रखते तो एक अलग शाम होती

आज वो भी पछता रहा होगा मेरा साथ छोड़कर,
अगर साथ-साथ चलते तो कुछ और बात होती

— Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) October 8, 2024

Mr Chadha posted a small poem in Hindi that, roughly translated, wonders what would have happened had the two parties managed to strike a deal.

At least one other INDIA bloc ally – Bengal’s ruling Trinamool – also had harsh words for the Congress’ “attitude” during seat-share talks. Those followed Mamata Banerjee’s criticism from last year.

For its part, the Congress has said it will hold a detailed review of both election results. Party boss Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and other senior leaders met in Delhi Thursday.

Speaking after the meeting, Ajay Maken said multiple topics had been discussed, including infighting and factionalism in Haryana and the allegations against the Election Commission.

READ | Infighting, Alliances, EVMs In Focus As Congress Reviews Haryana Loss

Sources said the party realises things have to change for the Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections, and that Mr Kharge had already met the former’s Chief Minister, Hemant Soren.

Like the Sena (UBT), Mr Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is a member of the INDIA bloc.

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.

Three Independent Haryana MLAs, including India’s richest woman Savitri Jindal, are likely to extend support to the BJP government in the state. Ms Jindal, Devender Kadyan and Rajesh Joon will meet the BJP high command and the state election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan today.

Ms Jindal, a former Congress minister, secured victory from Hisar – a seat that she had won in 2005 and 2009. Mr Kadyan, a BJP rebel, won from Ganaur as an Independent while Mr Joon defeated his BJP rival to secure victory in Bahadurgarh.

Ms Jindal, who had joined the BJP in March after parting ways with the Congress, contested the Haryana assembly polls as an Independent after being denied a ticket by the BJP.

Read | Is India’s Richest Woman Savitri Jindal BJP’s ‘B Team’ In Haryana? What She Told NDTV

The 74-year-old leader, however, denied that she was a rebel and told NDTV yesterday she contested as an Independent to respect the wishes of the people of Hisar.

“They (the people of Hisar) wanted me to contest at any cost. Doctor sahab (Dr Kamal Gupta) is contesting from the BJP and the Congress has fielded Rara sahab (Ram Niwas Rara), so I had no choice but to contest as an Independent,” said Ms Jindal, whose son Naveen Jindal is the BJP MP from Kurukshetra.

The BJP pulled a surprise victory in the Haryana elections yesterday to return to power for a historic third time in a row. Sources suggest Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini would return for a second stint in the top post for leading the BJP to victory.

For the BJP, which is comfortably past the halfway mark with 48 seats, support from the three Independents will further cement its strength in the 90-member assembly.

The Congress, which came second, has refused to accept the results and alleged several irregularities in the counting process.

New Delhi:

Election Commission on Tuesday rejected claims by Congress leaders of alleged tampering of EVMs in some Haryana seats where machines with varying battery strength gave out different results.

The Election Commission was responding to claims by Congress leaders who said complaints had been received from Hisar, Mahendragarh and Panipat that there were electronic voting machines (EVMs) with 99 per cent battery on which the BJP won while units with 60-70 per cent battery saw the Congress win.

“Have you understood this conspiracy? Where there was 99 per cent battery in EVMs, the BJP won. Where there was less than 70 per cent battery, the Congress won. If this is not a conspiracy, then what is it?” party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said Tuesday.

The EC sources explained to PTI that alkaline batteries are used in the control unit of EVMs. New batteries are inserted in the control unit on the day of commissioning in the presence of candidates and are sealed, they said.

They explained that initially, the battery provides a voltage between 7.5 and 8 volts. Hence, the battery capacity is displayed as 99 per cent when the voltage is above 7.4, they said.

With the use of the EVM, its battery capacity and consequently the voltage decreases. As the voltage goes below 7.4, the battery capacity is displayed as 98 per cent to 10 per cent, they explained.

The control unit remains functional when the battery has more than 5.8 volts. It is when it is left with more than 10 per cent capacity and the battery replacement warning appears on the control unit display.

This is similar to the signal displayed in a vehicle when it is running on reserve fuel.

The remaining capacity of the battery on the counting day depends upon the mock poll conducted on the control unit, the actual poll and the initial voltage of the battery (8 to 7.5 volts).

Generally, the alkaline battery has the property of regaining its voltage to some extent when kept switched off, they said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Chandigarh:

The political landscape of Haryana dominated significantly by the Jat community has witnessed a drastic change in the last decade, ever since the BJP came to power in 2014, and continued its winning streak in 2024 as indicated by the results announced on Tuesday for the October 5 Assembly elections. 

The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and its breakaway faction Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), which played the kingmaker in the 2019 assembly poll, have been decimated this time.

Jats, who constitute about 27 per cent of the electorate and once the traditional vote base of Haryana’s regional parties, seemed to have made a sway — a shift that proved detrimental for INLD and JJP. 

While the results came as a massive setback for Dushyant Chautala, the youngest scion Arjun Chautala, however, managed to defeat Independent candidate and sitting legislator Ranjit Singh — an outcome from which the party might hope that all is not lost yet.

Both patriarch-dominated regional parties lost their grip, concentrated largely in rural areas, with their top leaders Abhay Singh Chautala of the INLD and his nephew Dushyant Chautala of the JJP biting the dust.

They are from the legacy of former Deputy Prime Minister and the state’s tallest Jat leader, Chaudhary Devi Lal who, with his family ruled the state’s dusty and defection-ridden politics for decades.

Abhay Chautala was defeated from his stronghold Ellenabad by Congress nominee Bharat Singh Beniwal. JJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala faced a major defeat from the Jat-dominated Uchana Kalan constituency, finishing sixth. BJP’s Devender Attri defeated Congress’ Brijendra Singh from Uchana Kalan seat in Jind.

Outgoing legislator Abhay Chautala has won the Ellenabad seat four times since 2010 and his grandfather, Devi Lal, served as the deputy prime minister.

Interestingly, the JJP, which was at the helm with the outgoing BJP government led by Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for four and a half years, has struggled to secure any seat or build a significant vote base across Haryana, marking a tough setback.

However, INLD’s youngest scion Arjun Chautala defeated Independent candidate and sitting legislator Ranjit Singh with 6,507 votes from Rania.

The INLD partnered with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), while its breakaway faction JJP, which had an alliance with the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), promised to launch the Jannayak Fasal Suraksha Bima Yojana for the prosperity of farmers if the combine forms the government.

Eyeing the Dalit voters, who constitute 21 per cent of the state’s population, the JJP contested 70 seats, while the Azad Samaj Party fielded candidates in the remaining 20 seats.

Interestingly, the INLD stitched an alliance with the BSP to woo the Dalits with leaders of both parties agreeing to project Abhay Chautala as the Chief Minister’s face. As per the alliance, the INLD contested 53 seats, while the BSP fielded candidates on 37 seats.

At the launch of the JJP-Azad Samaj Party alliance, both Dushyant Chautala and Chandra Shekhar, who are both 36 years old, had promised to fight for the rights and welfare of the farmers and to form a “government of the youth”.

Dushyant Chautala’s brother, Digvijaya Singh Chautala, faced defeat from Sirsa’s Dabwali constituency, while Sunaina Chautala of the INLD lost from Fatehabad.

After the feud within the INLD, five-time Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala’s grandson Dushyant split the party vertically in 2018 and formed the JJP.

INLD’s breakaway faction, the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), led by Dushyant Chautala, who in 2014 was the county’s youngest MP at the age of 26 and was the Deputy Chief Minister in the state government led by Manohar Lal Khattar, is in an alliance with the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), while the INLD has tied up with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

During the campaigning, the INLD was banking on its performance from March 2000 to March 2005, the longest term of Om Prakash Chautala. After that, the party emerged as the principal opposition party in the 2014 polls with 19 legislators. In the outgoing Assembly, the party has a lone legislator, Abhay Chautala.

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.

The Congress registered over 15 per cent rise in its vote share in 2024 in comparison to the 2019 parliamentary election vote share.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Chandigarh:

The Haryana Assembly poll results came as a shock to many dynasts who had entered the fray as many prominent faces had to bite the dust, though some emerged victorious.

Many family members of former chief ministers Bhajan Lal, Bansi Lal and Devi Lal had entered the fray.

For the first time in more than five decades, the Bhajan Lal family lost the Adampur seat in the Hisar district, the family’s traditional stronghold.

Prominent among those who lost include Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Singh Chautala, BJP’s Bhavya Bishnoi and JJP’s Dushyant Chautala, while the list of winners includes BJP’s Shruti Choudhry and Arti Rao Singh.

From the Adampur seat, the BJP had fielded former chief minister Bhajan Lal’s grandson and sitting MLA Bhavya Bishnoi, but he lost to Congress candidate Chander Prakash by a narrow margin of 1,268 votes. While Bhavya had won the seat in 2022 by-polls, the seat was earlier represented by his father Kuldeep Bishnoi and grandfather Bhajan Lal.

However, Bhavya’s uncle and Congress candidate Chander Mohan won from the Panchkula constituency against the Speaker of the outgoing Assembly and BJP sitting MLA Gian Chand Gupta.

While the members of Haryana’s three famous ‘Lals’ were in the race, with some even taking on each other, there were a few more from other prominent political families whose entry made the electoral battle interesting.

Ever since Haryana was carved out as a separate state way back in 1966, its politics has revolved for about three decades around the three ‘Lals’ — Devi Lal, popularly known as ‘Tau’ Devi Lal, Bhajan Lal and Bansi Lal –” all of whom have served as the state’s chief ministers. Devi Lal also served as the country’s deputy prime minister.

The 90-member Haryana Assembly went to polls on Saturday while the results were declared on Tuesday.

The ruling BJP retained power in Haryana, winning 48 of the 89 seats it had contested in the 90-member House, while the Congress won 36 of the 89 it contested and was leading in one seat.

INLD won two seats while three were won by Independents.

The BJP did not contest the Sirsa seat, while the Congress left the Bhiwani seat for the CPI(M).

The Tosham Assembly seat in the Bhiwani district witnessed a clash between two grandchildren of Bansi Lal. Anirudh Chaudhry, a former treasurer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), was defeated by his cousin and former MP Shruti Choudhry,” the BJP candidate.

Shruti Choudhry is the daughter of BJP leader Kiran Choudhry and Bansi Lal’s son Surender Singh, while Anirudh Chaudhry is the son of Ranbir Singh Mahendra. Mahendra, a former BCCI president, and Surender Singh were brothers.

The Tosham Assembly seat was represented by Kiran Choudhry but she quit as an MLA last month, after which the BJP nominated her for the Rajya Sabha by-poll from Haryana, which she won unopposed.

Devi Lal’s grandson and sitting INLD MLA Abhay Singh Chautala, whose party contested elections in alliance with the BSP, lost from the Ellenabad seat in the Sirsa district, while from Dabwali, Devi Lal’s grandson Aditya Devi Lal, an INLD candidate, won the seat.

JJP’s Digvijay Singh Chautala, great-grandson of the former deputy prime minister, was also in contest from Dabwali but he lost badly.

Aditya Devi Lal, who is the son of Jagdish, the youngest son of Devi Lal, quit the BJP and joined the INLD recently and was fielded from Dabwali.

Digvijay Singh Chautala is a JJP leader and former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala’s brother. The JJP, headed by Dushyant and Digvijay’s father and former MP Ajay Singh Chautala, contested the polls in alliance with Chandra Shekhar Azad-led Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), but the alliance failed to win a seat.

From the Rania seat in Sirsa, Ranjit Singh Chautala, former minister and Devi Lal’s son, who had quit the BJP recently after being denied ticket and had entered the fray as an independent candidate, lost. INLD candidate and Devi Lal’s great-grandson Arjun Chautala won from Rania. Arjun is the son of INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala.

Arjun defeated his nearest Congress rival, Sarv Mitter.

In Jind district’s Uchana Kalan, former deputy chief minister and JJP leader Dushyant Chautala, the sitting MLA, ended up on the fifth position. BJP’s Devender Attri defeated his nearest Congress rival Brijendra Singh by a narrow margin of 32 votes.

Earlier this year, bureaucrat-turned-politician Brijendra and his father and former Union minister Birender Singh left the BJP and joined the Congress.

Birender Singh is the maternal grandson of Sir Chhotu Ram, who was considered a messiah of farmers.

Another prominent political family’s members who entered the fray –” from Ateli in Mahendragarh as a BJP nominee — “was Arti Rao, whose father Rao Inderjit Singh is a senior leader of the party.

Arti defeated her nearest Bahujan Samaj Party rival Attar Lal by a margin of 3,085 votes.

A descendant of Ahir leader Rao Tula Ram, Rao Inderjit Singh, the son of former Haryana chief minister Rao Birender Singh, is an MP from Gurugram and a minister of state in the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala’s son Aditya Surjewala, who had entered the contest as party nominee from Kaithal, won the seat defeating BJP’s sitting MLA Leela Ram.

Aditya is the grandson of Congress’ Shamsher Singh Surjewala, who represented Kaithal multiple times in the Assembly. Randeep has also been an MLA from the Kaithal constituency. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Chandigarh:

The Uchana Kalan seat in Haryana saw one of the fiercest electoral encounters with BJP’s Devender Chatar Bhuj Attri defeating Congress candidate Brijendra Singh by just 32 votes.

The margin of 32 votes was the lowest margin among the 90 assembly segments where polling took place on October 5.

The Jannayak Janta Party Dushyant Chautala who was the outgoing MLA from Uchana Kalan seat was at the fifth spot, as per the Election Commission.

On the other hand, Congress party’s Mamman Khan won the Ferozepur Jhirka seat in the Nuh district by the highest margin of 98,441 votes.

Mr Khan, who was the sitting MLA from this seat, defeated BJP’s Naseem Ahmed. Mr Khan polled 1,30,497 votes while his nearest rival got 32,056 votes.

Indian National Lok Dal’s Aditya Devilal won the Dabwali seat by 610 votes and defeated Congress party’s Amit Sihag.

Congress party’s Rajbir Fartia defeated BJP’s senior leader Jai Parkash Dalal in the Loharu seat by 792 votes.

From the Adampur seat, Congress party candidate Chander Parkash defeated BJP’s Bhavya Bishnoi by a margin of 1,268 votes.

BJP’s Sunil Satpal Sangwan won the Dadri seat after defeating Congress party’s Manisha Sangwan by a margin of 1,957 votes.

Congress party’s Chander Mohan defeated BJP senior leader and Haryana assembly speaker Gian Chand Gupta from the Panchkula seat by a margin of 1,997 votes.

The BJP emerged victorious in 48 seats while the Congress won 36 seats and was leading in one seat, according to the Election Commission.

The BJP is set to form the government in Haryana for a third straight time, bucking anti-incumbency and overcoming the setback in Lok Sabha polls when its tally dropped from 10 in 2019 to five seats.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The BJP may have defied exit poll predictions to pull off a surprise victory in the Haryana election, but eight ministers in the incumbent Nayab Singh Saini government and Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta suffered defeat.

Among the ministers who lost this election is Ranjit Singh, who served as Haryana’s power minister from 2019-2024. The former MP finished third in Haryana’s Rania seat, which was won by Indian National Lok Dal’s Arjun Chautala.

Kanwar Pal Gujjar, who handled multiple portfolios in the incumbent government and also served as Haryana Assembly Speaker from 2014-2019, lost in Jagadhri today. He was defeated by the Congress’s Akram Khan by a margin of nearly 7,000 votes.

The other ministers who suffered defeats amid the BJP’s surprise victory in this election are Subhash Sudha in Thanesar seat, Jai Parkash Dalal from Loharu, Abhe Singh Yadav in Nangal, Sanjay Singh in Nuh, Kamal Gupta in Hisar and Aseem Goel in Ambala City. Of these, Sanjay Singh and Kamal Gupta finished third.

Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, who won the Panchkula Assembly seat in 2014 and 2019, has lost it this time to the Congress’s Chander Mohan, son of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal.

Chief Minister Saini, however, posted a victory in Ladwa constituency.

Defying exit poll predictions and anti-incumbency theories, the BJP scored its best poll show in Haryana today, winning 48 out of 90 seats and comfortably defeating the main Opposition Congress, which was widely seen as the favourite in this poll contest.

The Congress was leading in early trends and party supporters responded by celebrating before the trends stabilised. As the counting entered later rounds, the BJP first clawed back and then left Congress far behind — at 37 seats.

New Delhi:

Around 9 am, one hour into the counting of votes for the Haryana polls, the Congress had surged far ahead of the BJP. Jalebis and dhols marked celebrations at the Congress headquarters in Delhi, sharply contrasting with the deserted BJP office.

But an hour later, the tables turned and the BJP was back in the game. Two more hours later, the BJP was firmly ahead and appeared headed for its biggest win in Haryana, defying exit poll predictions by a wide margin. Now the BJP headquarters was abuzz, with laddoos, jalebis and the works. Congress leaders hoped against hope for a turnaround in what had initially been a see-saw battle. Several rounds of counting are still left, but the picture is unlikely to change a lot.

Here are the five factors that contributed to the Congress setback

Congress Infighting: The Congress won 31 seats in Haryana in the 2019 election. If the current numbers hold, the party has not improved its performance substantially to enable a comeback.

One major factor is the party’s infighting and its top leaders squabbling for power. Much before the election, Congress leaders had maintained that victory was a foregone conclusion and had started jockeying for the Chief Minister post. The power tussle between Congress veteran Bhupinder Singh Hooda and senior leader Kumari Selja was out in the open, requiring much damage control behind the scenes.

While the Congress struggled to project a united front in the run-up to the election, it was crystal clear that the main opposition was a divided house. Mr Hooda was given a free hand in deciding candidates or alliances. The results show this did not work.

Regional Forces, Independents Ruin It For Opposition: While the Congress is marginally ahead of the BJP in the vote-share, the trends show it has not been very successful in converting this to seats. In several seats, the margin is very low, indicating that regional parties and Independents ate into the anti-incumbency votes in Haryana, benefiting the BJP.

The regional parties, however, failed to score in this election. The INLD and the BSP currently lead in one seat each and four Independents are ahead.

Anti-Jat Consolidation: While the Congress, led by Mr Hooda, focused on Jat votes, there was apparently a counter consolidation of non-Jat votes in favour of the BJP. In the run-up to the election, NDTV had repeatedly heard a term – Jatshahi (meaning supremacy of Jats). A Congress victory would have pointed to a return of the influential community’s heft in the state. Instead, other communities appear to have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the ruling party.

BJP’s Backroom Work: Though poll analysts had written off the BJP in Haryana, silent work on the ground turned the tide in the ruling party’s favour. Union minister and BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan was tasked with the party’s campaign for the tough election, and as the trends indicate, he has delivered in style. The BJP’s election machinery has yet again snatched victory from Congress’s jaws. Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar told NDTV that the party would definitely need to introspect why it could not convert public support into votes.

BJP’s Urban Supremacy: Over the past decade, the BJP has consolidated support in Haryana’s urban areas, such as Gurgaon and Faridabad. The Congress had expected to sweep the rural areas, but this does not appear to have happened as much as it would have liked. In Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ballabhgarh, the BJP is leading at this point.

New Delhi:

Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini visited Saini Samaj Dharamshala in Kurukshetra today, shortly before the counting of votes for the assembly election, and expressed confidence the BJP would retain power in the northern state.

Mr Saini contested the election from Ladwa constituency of Kurukshetra district. He said the BJP’s work on the development front in the last 10 years will ensure the party sails through this time, too.

The exit polls have forecast a Congress win in both Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir – though exit polls often get it wrong.

“We have done a lot of development work in the last 10 years. The kind of system set up by former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will continue to bring benefits for Haryana for a long time,” Mr Saini told reporters this morning.

“It is our responsibility to take this good work forward,” he added.

The Haryana assembly has 90 seats. Postal ballots will be counted first, followed by electronic voting machines (EVMs) 30 minutes later.

Haryana Chief Electoral Officer Pankaj Agarwal said 93 counting centres have been set up for the 90 assembly constituencies in 22 districts of Haryana.