Thaindian News

Chandigarh, Oct 22 (IANS) The Congress emerged as the single largest party in the Haryana assembly elections but had not been able to get a clear victory till Thursday afternoon. Of the 77 results in the 90-member assembly declared till 3 p.m., it had won only 39 seats and was leading in one.
The party was still inching towards a simple majority as the many thousands of votes cast in the Oct 13 assembly elections were being counted.

For a simple majority in the assembly, the Congress needs 46 seats. It had won 67 seats in the February 2005 elections.

Counting trends from all 90 centres indicated that the Congress would return to power but not as comfortably as party leaders were expecting it to.

The results were a dampener for the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government that opted for early assembly polls — seven months ahead of schedule — to cash in on its victory in the May Lok Sabha polls when it won nine of the 10 seats.

Four ministers in the Hooda government — Finance Minister Birender Singh, Transport Minister Mange Ram Gupta, Education Minister A.C. Chaudhary, and Cooperation Minister Meena Mandal — as well as state Congress president Phool Chand Mullana lost in the election.

However, the main opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) fared better than expected, winning 29 seats on its own and leading in two. Its alliance partner, the Akali Dal, made its debut in the Haryana assembly by winning the Kalanwali (reserved) seat.

The total count of the INLD-Akali Dal combine was 30 seats won and leading in another three, way above its 2005 toll of nine seats. In the Lok Sabha elections as well, it had led in only seven assembly segments.

A visibly happy INLD president Om Prakash Chautala asked Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia to call the opposition parties to form the next government in the state.

“People of Haryana have exposed the wrong-doings of the Hooda government. On moral grounds, the Hooda government should resign. We will form the next government,” Chautala told reporters.

Chief Minister Hooda admitted the results were not to his liking.

“Yes, the results are not as per our expectation. But the Congress is going to create history by forming a government in Haryana for the second term. We will examine why we ended up with fewer seats. The Congress will form the next government in Haryana.”

He claimed that it was for the first time since 1972 that a party government was being repeated in the state.

Party sources say that the less than emphatic victory it expected could impact Hooda’s claim to be chief minister with leaders like union minister Kumari Selja and Kiran Chaudhary gunning for him.

But Congress supporters nonetheless thronged Hooda’s house in Rohtak town to celebrate.

Hooda’s government got the previous assembly dissolved seven months ahead of schedule in August this year to seek early elections after the Congress won nine out of 10 Lok Sabha seats in May.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) were not even projected to reach double figures. BJP and HJC had won four seats each, while the BSP had got one so far.

Six independents, some of them Congress rebels, also won, officials said.

There were 1,222 candidates, including 68 women, in the fray.