Celebrations at Cong HQ as Trends Trickle in Haryana, J&K

Even as counting was underway and trends started emanating in Jammu & Kashmir and Haryana, celebrations began outside the Congress headquarters in Delhi early Tuesday morning

The Bhupinder Hooda-led Congress is confident of returning to power in Haryana. The exit polls had predicted a good show by the INDIA bloc in Jammu and Kashmir. And the early trends are indicating the same by the Congress in Haryana and the INDIA bloc in J&K.

Congress supporters were seen waving party flags and dancing to Dhol's beats outside the Delhi office. They were saying that the party would form the governments in Haryana as well as in J&K. Boxes of sweets were being distributed.

In J&K, the early leads (counting of postal ballots) showed the Congress-National Conference alliance taking a big lead in what was supposed to be a tight race. At 9 a.m. the Congress-NC was ahead in 29 seats and the BJP in 20. The People's Democratic Party of ex-Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti was leading in six and Independent candidates were in the pole seat in three seats.

In Haryana, the Congress carried a high-decibel campaign under former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and is predicted to win more in the 90-member House as per the exit polls. The majority mark for a party to form the government is 46.

The initial leads for Haryana show that the Congress is winning more seats than the BJP in what has been a largely bipolar contest. As of 8.45 a.m., the Congress is ahead in 41 constituencies while the BJP is leading in 22.

However, predicting a historic win for the third consecutive term, Chief Minister and BJP candidate from Ladwa Assembly seat, Nayab Singh Saini, said they do not need any alliance as they would form the government on their own.

In the last Assembly elections in Haryana in 2019, the BJP won 40 seats, the Congress 31 and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) 10. The BJP formed the government with the support of the JJP and Dushyant Chautala became the deputy chief minister. The post-poll alliance ended when Saini became the chief minister.