BJP maintains lead after crossing halfway mark in Haryana polls

Chandigarh: The ruling BJP in Haryana on Tuesday crossed the majority mark of 46 in the Assembly by leading on 49 seats and maintained its lead, while the Congress was on 35, as per the latest trends available on the Election Commission website.

Independents have been leading on four seats while the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the BSP were ahead on one seat each. The Aam Aadmi Party and INLD’s offshoot Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) is yet to get off the mark.

The leading independent candidates are Savitri Jindal from Hisar, Rakesh June from Bahadurgarh, Chitra Sarwara from Ambala Cantt, and Devendra Kadian from Ganaur.

After 10 rounds of counting, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini (BJP) is leading from the Ladwa constituency by 12,423 votes. Mewa Singh of the Congress is in second place, followed by Independent Vikram Singh Cheema.

After 10 rounds of counting, Olympic wrestler-turned-politician Vinesh Phogat is leading from the Julana constituency having secured 45,293 votes. Her nearest rival Yogesh Kumar of the BJP got 41,151 votes.

Jannayak Janta Party’s (JJP) Dushyant Chautala is trailing in the Uchana Kalan constituency, having secured 5,099 votes after nine rounds of counting, placing him in sixth position. Brijendra Singh of the Congress from this seat is leading with 28,547 votes.

INLD’s president Abhay Chautala's son Arjun is leading from the Rania seat over his granduncle and Independent candidate Ranjit Chautala by a margin of 6,161 votes.

In Panchkula, BJP’s Gian Chand Gupta, the outgoing speaker of the legislative assembly, has taken the lead with a margin of 2,034 votes by the end of round seven. He has received a total of 26,539 votes, while Chander Mohan of Congress has garnered 24,505 votes.

In the Karnal assembly constituency, Jagmohan Anand of the BJP is leading with 32,052 votes, followed by Sumita Virk of the Congress with 18,970 votes. Sunit Bindal of the Aam Aadmi Party is in third place with 669 votes.

Congress MP Kumari Selja exuded confidence in the party’s victory. “Hold your horses. Congress will form a government with an overwhelming majority,” she said.

Meanwhile, Union Minister and BJP's Haryana in-charge, Dharmendra Pradhan, arrived at the residence of former chief minister and Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in the national capital as the BJP “eyes victory in the state”.