Rahul Gandhi reacts to Haryana poll outcome: 'Analysing unexpected result'

A day after the Congress party was left stunned due to the shock reversal of counting trends for Haryana election result, Rahul Gandhi said that the party was analysing the outcome

Day after the Haryana Assembly elections result, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday issued his reaction to the party's “unexpected” defeat, stating that Congress is analysing the outcome. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Gandhi also expressed gratitude to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for giving the National Conference-Congress alliance a chance to form the government.

“We are analysing the unexpected results of Haryana. We will inform the Election Commission about the complaints coming from many assembly constituencies,” Gandhi said, while thanking the party supporters for their work in Haryana.

“We will continue this fight for rights, for social and economic justice, for truth, and will keep raising your voice,” he said.

What happened in Haryana?

A day before, Congress was left stunned due to shock trend reversal during the counting of votes in Haryana, where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party emerged victorious for the third consecutive time. The BJP, which was trailing in the initial counting rounds, fought back to take a massive lead after the first couple of hours. By noon, the saffron party was leading on about 50 seats of the 90 seats in Haryana.

Amid the process, the Congress also raised concerns over alleged slow counting and updates on Election Commission’s (EC) website, which the poll body labelled as an “ill founded” charge. Notably, on Saturday, at least four exit poll surveys had predicted a comfortable victory for the Congress in Haryana.

As the counting was completed, the election body announced the BJP as the winner in constituencies, ahead of the majority mark of 45 needed to form the government. The Congress won 37 seats, while the Indian National Lok Dal won three seats. Two independent candidates also won, the data on EC’s website showed. Former Haryana deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janata Party was completely wiped out from the show. 

In Jammu and Kashmir, the NC-Congress alliance won 48 seats, the BJP won 29 seats.