The Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday looked set to maintain its winning streak in Maharashtra and Haryana, with an exit poll predicting a massive victory for the saffron party in the assembly elections in the two states where it is already in power.
The BJP appeared headed for a landslide victory in Haryana and a win with a huge margin in Maharashtra along with its allies, including the Shiv Sena, five months after its tremendous performance in the Lok Sabha elections.
In Haryana, the BJP was projected to bag 66-74 seats in the 90-member assembly, while Maharashtra appeared to be giving it a mandate of 198-222 seats in the 288-member House, according to the exit poll.
In the last assembly elections held in 2014, the party had got 47 seats in Haryana and 185 seats in Maharashtra along with Shiv Sena.
The party made a clean sweep in this year’s Lok Sabha elections in Haryana, winning all the 10 seats at stake. In Maharashtra, the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition bagged 41 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats.
In the assembly elections held yesterday, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance seemed to be lagging way behind in both states as the exit poll gave it only 3-12 seats in Haryana and 49-75 in Maharashtra.
In terms of vote share, the BJP was predicted to get 42.4% against 26% for Congress and 19% for Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), a breakaway faction of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).
In Maharashtra, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance seemed to have performed the best in the Vidarbha region where it was projected to get 47-51 seats, followed by 42-46 in West Maharashtra, 30-34 in Konkan, 29-33 in Mumbai, 26-30 in Marathvada and 24-28 in North Maharashtra.
The UPA seemed to be getting the maximum of 21-25 seats in West Maharashtra, followed by 11-15 in Marathvada, 8-12 in North Maharashtra, 6-10 in Vidarbha, 3-7 in Konkon and 0-6 in Mumbai.
Between UPA allies Congress and NCP, a vote share of 19.5% seemed to be going towards the former and 16.1% towards the latter.
Meanwhile in Chandigarh, two-time former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the contest in the state was only between the BJP and Congress and the latter would emerge victorious.
“The Jannayak Janata Party and Indian National Lok Dal are not factors, the contest is between Congress and the BJP only and the Congress will get the majority,” Hooda said.
Hooda, the leader of opposition, is re-contesting from his bastion Garhi Sampla-Kiloi in Rohtak district.
Hooda, a de-facto chief ministerial candidate, feels his party has an edge over the ruling BJP owing to huge unemployment in the state, that according to estimates has reached 28.7% against the national average of 8.4%.
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