Haryana elections 2024: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looks set to retain Haryana for the third time as the saffron party crossed the majority mark in the Haryana assembly elections and was leading on 48 seats at 2pm on Tuesday. After the gains in early trends, the Congress party is now leading on 37 seats. Several exit polls had also predicted a Congress victory in Haryana.
However, even though the trends show the BJP making gains, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor asked to wait for the final results and not make a premature conclusion. Congress leader Kumari Selja also exuded confidence, stating that the party would sweep over 60 assembly seats. Former Haryana Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda also exuded confidence despite trends.
Meanwhile, the Congress party has alleged that there is a slowing down in uploading up-to-date trends in Haryana on the Election Commission website.
The internal factionalism was very much visible, with multiple claimants for the Chief Minister's post. Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said that having the CM ambition was not wrong. Former Chief Minister Bhupender Singh Hooda stated that he was not retired yet and added that the party high command will decide who will be the chief minister. Whereas, Sirsa MP Kumari Selja, a prominent Dalit face, said that she has enough experience to be considered as the front-runner for the top post.
The trends indicate that the Modi factor is still intact in Haryana. The Prime Minister held several rallies in the state and attacked Congress on key issues such as corruption, reservations and parivarwaad. PM Modi also laid out several pro-farmer steps taken by the government, even though the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi raised the issues of jobs, inflation, drugs and alleged favouritism towards select businessmen. The rallies held by Rahul Gandhi seem to have failed to change the narrative towards the BJP and the Nayab Saini-led government.
In order to stop the BJP from winning the third consecutive Haryana assembly election, the party majorly remains dependent on the Jat community. However, non-Jats and division in Dalit votes seems to have played a crucial role for the BJP in increasing its chances.
Amid infighting in the party with the Hooda and the anti-Hooda camp perceiving their aspirations, the party high command backed the former chief minister and most of the candidates filed by the party were supported by the Hooda camp.
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