Haryana gets hung assembly, BJP needs six more to form govt

Haryana on Thursday ended up with a hung assembly with the ruling BJP emerging as the largest party with 40 seats, but still six short of the halfway mark needed to form the next government.

The Congress won 31 seats, the Jannayak Janta Party 10, the Indian National Lok Dal and Haryana Lokhit Party one each. The Aam Aadmi Party, which contested 46 seats, was decimated.

The split verdict triggered hectic political activity. At least two independents had boarded a flight to Delhi for a meeting with BJP leadership, party sources said.

The BJP's final tally came as a disappointment for a party that had won all 10 parliamentary seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, and predicted that it will cross 75 seats this time in the assembly.

But eight of 10 ministers fielded by the BJP lost.

In the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP cornered 58 per cent of the vote share, which has now dropped to about 36.5 per cent. Despite the loss of seats, this is till about three percentage points more than what the party got in the 2014 assembly polls.

The Congress vote share is up nearly eight percentage points since 2014.

For the state's main opposition party, hit by infighting that required a change in the state leadership ahead of the October 21 election, the results gave it a shot at power if the JJP extends support.

As counting trends indicated that no party would enough seats in the 90-member House to form the government, senior Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda sought support for his party.

"This mandate is against the BJP. The JJP, INLD and others, including the independents, should join hands with the Congress to keep the BJP at bay," he told reporters in Rohtak.

Hooda alleged the administration was putting pressure on the independents at the behest of the BJP and not allowing them to move freely.

Commenting on the early trends, JJP leader Dushyant Chautala said, "This shows there was huge anti-incumbency against the (Manohar Lal) Khattar government."