New Delhi, Oct 25 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Haryana Assembly poll verdict on Thursday threw up a hung House, with no party reaching the majority figure, in contrast to Maharashtra where the BJP-Shiv Sena combine secured a comfortable majority to retain power.

In Haryana, the ruling BJP emerged as the single largest party by winning 40 seats, but fell short of the halfway mark by 5 seats.

The Congress, on the other hand, showed significant progress from its performance in the last Assembly elections by winning 31 seats. It had got 15 in the 2014 Assembly polls.

The BJP got 36.49 per cent votes, while the Congress bagged 28.08 per cent votes.

The nearly year-old Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) was victorious in 10 constituencies, making it a possible kingmaker, along with 7 Independents.

The INLD, which ruled the state for four times, managed just one seat.

The outcome of the Assembly polls held on October 21 is a setback for the BJP, which had won 47 seats in the last state elections in 2014 and had been expressing confidence about raising its tally beyond 75 this time, using the nationalist pitch of abolition of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and Balakot air strike.

The results came as a shocker for the saffron party, particularly since it had won all the 10 seats in the Lok Sabha elections held just five months back. The Congress had failed to open account in the April-May Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP had formed the government in Haryana for the first time in 2014, when it improved its tally from four in the previous elections.

The INLD, which ruled the state the last time from 2000 to 2004, stood second with 19 seats in the last Assembly elections and was the main Opposition party in the outgoing House.

The JJP was formed in December last year after Dushyant Chautala, grandson of four-time Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, split from the INLD following a bitter fight in the family.

The Congress has already begun efforts to woo JJP leader Dushyant Chautala but he has refused to spell out his future course of action, saying it will be decided after the party's meeting on Friday.

In Maharashtra, where 288 seats are at stake, the BJP won 104 seats and was leading in 1 more as of midnight. Its ally Shiv Sena won 56 seats, taking their combined lead tally to 161 seats.

From the Opposition camp, the Congress won 43 seats and was leading in one more while its alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ended up with 54 seats.

Going by the results and trends, the BJP's tally is lesser by 17 seats compared to its performance in the last Assembly elections held in 2014 when it got 122 seats. Shiv Sena had 63 seats last time.

The NCP improved its performance significantly as it had got 41 seats in the last Assembly elections, when the Congress had got 42 seats.

Source: IANS

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Chandigarh, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The ruling BJP in Haryana led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday won 39 seats but failed to cross the halfway mark in the 90-member Assembly.

Also eight ministers, except two, lost the polls along with party chief Subhash Barala.

The rival Congress won 31 seats, while the less than year old Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), which broke away from the state's once major regional Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) owing to family disputes, won 10 seats.

The INLD won a lone seat against 19 in 2014 Assembly election. Seven Independents and one each of the INLD and the Haryana Lokhit Party have also won.

While Khattar retained his Karnal seat with a comfortable margin, two-time Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda too managed to win in his bastion of Garhi Sampla-Kiloi in Rohtak district with a good lead.

Khattar won by 45,188 votes over his nearest rival, Tarlochan Singh of the Congress.

BJP's outgoing ministers - Captain Abhimanyu, O.P. Dhankar, Ram Bilas Sharma, Kavita Jain, Krishan Lal Panwar, Manish Grover, Karan Dev Kamboj and Krishan Kumar Bedi - all ended up with humiliating defeats.

But Public Health and Engineering Minister Banwari Lal won the Bawal seat and Health Minister Anil Vij retained his seat from Ambala Cantonment.

Two sitting ministers, Rao Narbir Singh and Vipul Goel, were denied tickets and fresh faces were brought in. Both lost the elctions.

Sitting Congress legislator Kuldeep Bishnoi, whose hotel worth Rs 150 crore in a prime location of Gurugram, has been attached by the Income Tax department, retained his stronghold of Adampur by defeating his nearest rival and TikTok celebrity Sonali Phogat of the BJP by 29,471 votes.

JJP chief Dushyant Chautala and his mother Naina Chautala won the Uchana Kalan and Badhra seats, respectively.

Outgoing Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu, who lost to JJP candidate and BJP rebel Ram Kumar Gautam in the Narnaud constituency in Hisar district by a margin of 12,029 votes, admitted his defeat during counting.

As it was becoming clear that the BJP would not form the government on its own, its state unit chief Subhash Barala also lost the Tohana Assembly seat in Fatehabad district by 52,302 votes to JJP's Devender Singh Babli.

BJP candidate and former Indian hockey captain Sandeep Singh defeated Congress' Mandeep Chatha in Pehowa. This was the BJP's first win in the constituency.

While BJP candidate and international wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt faced defeat, another of its candidates, wrestler Babita Phogat, emerged third in the Dadri constituency in Bhiwani.

Another prominent defeat for the BJP is its sitting legislator Prem Lata, 59, wife of former Union minister Birender Singh, who was defeated by JJP chief Dushyant Chautala, great-grandson of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, by 47,452 votes.

Congress' national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, who lost by a mere 1,246 votes to BJP's Leela Ram, conceded defeat from Kaithal.

Surjewala, a two-time MLA, was seeking his third term from Kaithal, once a known stronghold of the Surjewala family.

Congress leader Kiran Chaudhary, however, retained her Tosham seat by 18,059 votes.

The Congress candidate from Ferozepur Jhirka in Mewat, Mamman Khan, defeated BJP's Naseem Ahmed, an INLD defector by 37,004 votes. Ahmed had won this seat in the 2014 and 2009 Assembly elections.

BJP's Zakir Hussain, who was the sitting legislator in Nuh constituency, lost his seat to Congress' Aftab Ahmed as the latter won by a margin of 4,038 votes.

BJP's Pramod Vij and Mahipal Dhanda won Panipat City and Rural seats, respectively.

The JJP appears set to play kingmaker in the state. Dushyant Chautala said he has called a meeting of the party executive at 11 a.m. on Friday in Delhi to discuss the party's strategy.

JJP candidate Ram Niwas won from Narwana (reserved). He contested against BJP's Santosh Rai. JJP candidate Ram Karan won from Shahbad (reserved) by a margin of 37,127 votes against BJP's Krishan Kumar.

Another JJP candidate Amarjeet Dhanda has won from Julana beating the incumbent Parminder Singh Dhull, who switched to the BJP from the INLD.

Independent Nayan Pal Rawat won the elections by 16,429 votes by defeating Congress candidate Raghubir Tewatia.

INLD's Abhay Chautala won the party's lone seat of Ellenabad with 11,922 votes, defeating BJP candidate Pawan Beniwal.

Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) President Gopal Kanda registered a win from Sirsa seat with a slender margin of 602 votes, defeating Independent Gokul Setia.

Kanda extended unconditional support to the BJP.

After winning his seat by 58,312 votes by defeating BJP candidate Satish Nandal, Hooda said the mandate is against the BJP government.

"The mandate is against the current government of Haryana, and all parties should come together to form a strong government whether it's JJP, BSP, INLD or independent candidates," Hooda told reporters.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Haryana Assembly poll verdict on Thursday threw up a hung House, with no party reaching the majority figures, in contrast to Maharashtra where the BJP-Shiv Sena combine was comfortably placed to retain power.

In Haryana, the ruling BJP emerged as the single largest party by winning 40 seats, but fell short of the halfway mark by 5 seats.

The Congress, on the other hand, showed significant progress from its performance in the last Assembly elections by winning 31 seats. It had got 15 in the 2014 Assembly polls.

The BJP got 36.49 per cent votes, while the Congress bagged 28.08 per cent votes.

The nearly year-old Jannayak Janata Dal (JJP) was victorious in 10 constituencies, making it a possible kingmaker, along with 7 Independents.

INLD, which ruled the state for four times, managed just 1 seat.

The outcome of the Assembly polls held on October 21 is a setback for the BJP, which had won 47 seats in the last state elections in 2014 and had been expressing confidence about raising its tally beyond 75 this time, using the nationalist pitch of abolition of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and Balakot air strike.

The results came as a shocker for the saffron party, particularly since it had won all the 10 seats in the Lok Sabha elections held just five months back. The Congress had failed to open account in the April-May Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP had formed the government in Haryana for the first time in 2014, when it improved its tally from 4 in the previous elections.

The INLD, which ruled the state the last time from 2000 to 2004, stood second with 19 seats in the last Assembly elections and was the main Opposition party in the outgoing House.

JJP was formed in December last year after Dushyant Chautala, grandson of four-time Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, split from INLD following a bitter fight in the family.

The Congress has already begun efforts to woo JJP leader Dushyant Chautala but he has refused to spell out his future course of action, saying it will be decided after the party's meeting on Friday.

In Maharashtra, where 288 seats are at stake, the BJP won 100 seats and was leading in 5 seats till the filing of this report. Its ally Shiv Sena won 56 seats, taking their combined lead tally to 161 seats.

From the Opposition camp, the Congress won 40 seats and was leading in 4 seats while its alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won 51 seats and was leading in 3 constituencies.

Going by the results and trends, the BJP's tally is lesser by 17 seats compared to its performance in the last Assembly elections held in 2014 when it got 122 seats. Shiv Sena had 63 seats last time.

The NCP improved its performance significantly as it had got 41 seats in the last Assembly elections, when the Congress had got 42 seats.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentary board, here on Thursday, ratified names of Manohar Lal Khattar and Devendra Fadnavis for the post of Chief Ministers in Haryana and Maharashtra.

BJP president Amit Shah was authorised to take decisions and make appointments for the formation of new governments.

The meeting was attended by Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party working president JP Nadda, former MP Chief Minister Shivraj Chauhan, among others.

Modi, in his address to party workers, indicated that the BJP would stake claim to form the government in Haryana.

Earlier in the day, Shah tweeted, "In the last 5 years, the Khattar government under Modi's central leadership made every effort for the welfare of the people of Haryana. I congratulate the public for making the BJP the largest party and giving it a chance to serve again."

It was a not so-subtle indication that the BJP will stake claim in Haryana, where numbers don't allow it to form government on its own. "We have started Modi 2.0 with two wins," announced Shah. A relaxed Modi smiled, defying any presumption of tension.

The elections threw up a hung House in Haryana, with no party reaching the majority figure. Whereas in Maharashtra the BJP-Shiv Sena combine is comfortably placed to retain power.

In Haryana, the ruling BJP emerged as the single largest party by winning 39 seats, but fell short of the halfway mark by six seats in the 90-member House.

Source: IANS

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Chandigarh, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) In his first reaction to the Assembly results, BJP leader and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday hinted the formation of his government again in the state.

The BJP failed to cross the halfway mark in the 90-member Assembly. It won 39 seats against the 47 seats that it won in its first stint from 2014.

Khattar thanked the people of the state for the party's victory in most of the constituencies.

He also expressed gratitude for giving more percentage of votes to the BJP as compared to the 2014 elections.

In a statement released here, Khattar said under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last five years, his government has served the people with full dedication and thanked the people for their full support in this task.

Khattar said as soon as the BJP would once again form the government in the state, the public work will speed up through an honest and accountable government.

Source: IANS

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Chandigarh, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The ruling BJP in Haryana led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday won 39 seats but failed to cross the halfway mark in the 90-member Assembly.

Also eight ministers, except two, lost the polls along with party chief Subhash Barala.

The rival Congress won 31 seats, while the less than year old Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), which broke away from the state's once major regional Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) owing to family disputes, won 10 seats.

The INLD won a lone seat against 19 in 2014 Assembly election. Seven Independents and one each of the INLD and the Haryana Lokhit Party have also won.

While Khattar retained his Karnal seat with a comfortable margin, two-time Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda too managed to win in his bastion of Garhi Sampla-Kiloi in Rohtak district with a good lead.

Khattar won by 45,188 votes over his nearest rival, Tarlochan Singh of the Congress.

BJP's outgoing ministers - Captain Abhimanyu, O.P. Dhankar, Ram Bilas Sharma, Kavita Jain, Krishan Lal Panwar, Manish Grover, Karan Dev Kamboj and Krishan Kumar Bedi - all ended up with humiliating defeats.

But Public Health and Engineering Minister Banwari Lal won the Bawal seat and Health Minister Anil Vij retained his seat from Ambala Cantonment.

Two sitting ministers, Rao Narbir Singh and Vipul Goel, were denied tickets and fresh faces were brought in. Both lost the elctions.

Sitting Congress legislator Kuldeep Bishnoi, whose hotel worth Rs 150 crore in a prime location of Gurugram, has been attached by the Income Tax department, retained his stronghold of Adampur by defeating his nearest rival and TikTok celebrity Sonali Phogat of the BJP by 29,471 votes.

JJP chief Dushyant Chautala and his mother Naina Chautala won the Uchana Kalan and Badhra seats, respectively.

Outgoing Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu, who lost to JJP candidate and BJP rebel Ram Kumar Gautam in the Narnaud constituency in Hisar district by a margin of 12,029 votes, admitted his defeat during counting.

As it was becoming clear that the BJP would not form the government on its own, its state unit chief Subhash Barala also lost the Tohana Assembly seat in Fatehabad district by 52,302 votes to JJP's Devender Singh Babli.

BJP candidate and former Indian hockey captain Sandeep Singh defeated Congress' Mandeep Chatha in Pehowa. This was the BJP's first win in the constituency.

While BJP candidate and international wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt faced defeat, another of its candidates, wrestler Babita Phogat, emerged third in the Dadri constituency in Bhiwani.

Another prominent defeat for the BJP is its sitting legislator Prem Lata, 59, wife of former Union minister Birender Singh, who was defeated by JJP chief Dushyant Chautala, great-grandson of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, by 47,452 votes.

Congress' national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, who lost by a mere 1,246 votes to BJP's Leela Ram, conceded defeat from Kaithal.

Surjewala, a two-time MLA, was seeking his third term from Kaithal, once a known stronghold of the Surjewala family.

Congress leader Kiran Chaudhary, however, retained her Tosham seat by 18,059 votes.

The Congress candidate from Ferozepur Jhirka in Mewat, Mamman Khan, defeated BJP's Naseem Ahmed, an INLD defector by 37,004 votes. Ahmed had won this seat in the 2014 and 2009 Assembly elections.

BJP's Zakir Hussain, who was the sitting legislator in Nuh constituency, lost his seat to Congress' Aftab Ahmed as the latter won by a margin of 4,038 votes.

BJP's Pramod Vij and Mahipal Dhanda won Panipat City and Rural seats, respectively.

The JJP appears set to play kingmaker in the state. Dushyant Chautala said he has called a meeting of the party executive at 11 a.m. on Friday in Delhi to discuss the party's strategy.

JJP candidate Ram Niwas won from Narwana (reserved). He contested against BJP's Santosh Rai. JJP candidate Ram Karan won from Shahbad (reserved) by a margin of 37,127 votes against BJP's Krishan Kumar.

Another JJP candidate Amarjeet Dhanda has won from Julana beating the incumbent Parminder Singh Dhull, who switched to the BJP from the INLD.

Independent Nayan Pal Rawat won the elections by 16,429 votes by defeating Congress candidate Raghubir Tewatia.

INLD's Abhay Chautala won the party's lone seat of Ellenabad with 11,922 votes, defeating BJP candidate Pawan Beniwal.

Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) President Gopal Kanda registered a win from Sirsa seat with a slender margin of 602 votes, defeating Independent Gokul Setia.

Kanda extended unconditional support to the BJP.

After winning his seat by 58,312 votes by defeating BJP candidate Satish Nandal, Hooda said the mandate is against the BJP government.

"The mandate is against the current government of Haryana, and all parties should come together to form a strong government whether it's JJP, BSP, INLD or independent candidates," Hooda told reporters.

Source: IANS

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By Vishal Gulati

Chandigarh, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) Did the Jat voters' disenchantment spoil Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's Haryana game-plans? Experts believe the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had set its eyes on the Punjabi and the non-Jat voters, despite Jats, the land-owning class, accounting for 28 per cent of the population.

They attribute this the BJP's failure to cross the halfway mark in the 90-member Assembly. It could win only 40 seats against 47 in the 2014. The Congress has won 31 seats.

The election results show that the BJP lost mainly in the Jat-dominated seats of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Bhiwani and Hisar districts. Captain Abhimanyu and O.P. Dhankar, both Minister in the Khattar government, were among the top BJP Jat leaders to bite the dust.

According to experts, facing the anti-incumbency, the BJP government was banking on national issues than its performance. Also, the Jat quota factor remained an issue in the election where caste equations have always played a major role.

The Jats blamed the BJP government for not defending their 10 per cent quota demand in jobs in the Supreme Court, which set aside that provision.

Traditionally, they are known to back the Congress and the Om Prakash Chautala-led Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).

"The INLD's split owing to the family dispute, and long-time fissures in the Congress didn't help the BJP overcome its weakness on account of farm distress and lack of jobs," a political observer told IANS.

"The breakaway voters preferred to go en block with the INLD's faction Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), brainchild of a Jat leader (Dushyant Chautala)," said an observer. They decided to make Dushyant a king-maker and wipe out INLD's political presence in the state. Now, he holds the key to power in the state.

Jats were also upset with the BJP promoting non-Jat leader Khattar, a Punjabi incumbent, as chief ministerial candidate.

The BJP was eyeing to strengthen its vote base with a division between Jats and non-Jats voters, a fellow with the Department of Political Science of Panjab University told IANS.

The BJP was banking on other castes -- Punjabis (8 per cent), Brahmins (7.5 per cent), Ahirs (5.14 per cent), Vaish (5 per cent), Gujjars (3.35 per cent), Jat Sikhs (4 per cent), Rajputs (3.4 per cent), Meos and Muslims (3.8 per cent) and Bishnoi (0.7 per cent).

The Scheduled Castes constitute 21 per cent of the population, which is the second highest after the Jats.

The BJP had fielded 20 Jats (22.2 per cent), four less than the 2014 Assembly polls, one Jat Sikh, nine Punjabis, eight Vaishs, one Bishnoi, eight Brahmins, six Ahirs, five Gujjars, two Meos, six from the backward classes, four Rajputs, two Rors and 18 Scheduled Castes candidates.

In the patriarchal state of Haryana, the 'Deras' also wielded considerable influence. They are led by self-styled godmen Rampal and Gurmeet Ram Rahim, both behind bars. Last time, they had supported the BJP.

The Jat-dominated JJP, which has emerged as kingmaker in the elections, refused to open its cards as the Congress courted it to form the government. The elections have have thrown up a hung House.

JJP leader Chautala said he had called a meeting of the party executive at 11 a.m. on Friday in Delhi to discuss the strategy. His comments came amid reports that he was insisting on the Chief Minister's post as a condition for a post-poll tieup. It has won 10 seats.

"I believe the key to the new government is in the hands of the JJP," he said earlier in the day. Dushyant Chautala is the great-grandson of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal and grandson of jailed INLD leader O.P. Chautala.

Dushyant formed the new party with his brother Digvijay Chautala.

(Vishal Gulati can be reached at vishal.g@ians.in)

Source: IANS

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Mumbai, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena achieved a majority in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, winning 150 seats of the 260 results declared by the Election Commission till 9 p.m. on Thursday.

The BJP had won 95 seats and was leading in another 10, while ally Shiv Sena bagged 55 seats and notched a lead in another one constituency.

Together, the two pre-poll allies have touched 150 seats - or, crossed the half-way mark of 144 in the 288-member legislative assembly - and appeared set to bag power for a second consecutive term, barring unforeseen political developments.

The Opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) also put up a handsome show by winning 49 seats and leading in five more, while ally Congress won 35 and was ahead in the vote count in nine more seats.

Among the smaller parties and independents, the Bahujan Vikash Aghadi had won two and was leading in one seat, and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Prahar Janshakti Party and Samajwadi Party have emerged victorious in two seats each.

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, the Swabhimani Shetkari Party, the CPI-M, the Rashtriya Samaj Party, the Jan Surajya Party and the Krantikari Shetkari Party have bagged one seat each.

Among the independents, 12 were declared victorious and one was in a strong lead position in the state.

Maharashtra voted for a new 288-member Assembly on October 21, and the remaining final results of another two-dozen seats are expected by midnight, according to the EC officials.

Source: IANS

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Mumbai, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) In probably an unprecedented instance in the nation's electoral history, Congress candidate Dhiraj V. Deshmukh won the Latur Rural constituency in Maharashtra, getting more votes than the 'None Of The Above' (NOTA) option, on Thursday.

His debut poll victory for the Maharashtra legislature attracted attention as he notched the third highest victory margin of 1,18,000 votes in the state, but over the 'NOTA' button on the EVMs.

Hailing from a well-known political clan, Dhiraj is the youngest son of late Chief Minister and Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, and his other siblings are Amit Deshmukh who has been re-elected for the third time from Latur City on a Congress ticket, and the third brother is Bollywood actor-producer Ritesh Deshmukh, besides an uncle Dilip Deshmukh, who is also a prominent state politician.

While Dhiraj Deshmukh secured around 1,31,000 votes, 26,800 votes were cast for NOTA, the Shiv Sena's Sachin Deshmukh, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's Arjun Waghamare, and 12 other candidates stand to forfeit their election deposits.

Incidentally, like his popular father, Dhiraj also started his political career at the grassroots levels including the Zilla Parishad, served with the Indian Youth Congress and has now entered the Maharashtra Assembly.

"This victory has brought greater responsibilities on me and I pray for the continued support and blessings of my constituents to live up to their expectations," said Dhiraj after his unique victory.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Haryana Assembly poll verdict on Thursday threw up a hung House, with no party reaching the majority figures, in contrast to Maharashtra where the BJP-Shiv Sena combine was comfortably placed to retain power.

In Haryana, the ruling BJP emerged as the single largest party by winning 33 seats and leading at 7 others but fell short of the halfway mark by 5 seats.

The Congress, on the other hand, showed significant progress from its performance in the last Assembly elections by winning 29 seats and leading in 2. It had got 15 in the 2014 Assembly polls.

The nearly year-old Jannayak Janata Dal (JJP) was victorious in 10 constituencies, making it a possible kingmaker, along with 7 Independents.

INLD, which ruled the state for four times, was leading merely at 1 seat.

The outcome of the Assembly polls held on October 21 is a setback for the BJP, which had won 47 seats in the last state elections in 2014 and had been expressing confidence about raising its tally beyond 75 seats this time, using the nationalist pitch of abolition of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and Balakot air strike.

The results came as a shocker for the saffron party, particularly since it had won all the 10 seats in the Lok Sabha elections held just five months back. The Congress had failed to open account in the April-May Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP got 36.5 per cent votes while the Congress bagged 28.1 per cent votes.

The BJP had formed the government in Haryana for the first time in 2014, when it improved its tally from 4 in the previous elections.

The INLD, which ruled the state the last time from 2000 to 2004, stood second with 19 seats in the last Assembly elections and was the main Opposition party in the outgoing House.

JJP was formed in December last year after Dushyant Chautala, grandson of 4-time Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, split from INLD following a bitter fight in the family.

The Congress has already begun efforts to woo JJP leader Dushyant Chautala but he has refused to spell out his future course of action, saying it will be decided after the party's meeting on Friday.

In Maharashtra, where 288 seats are at stake, the BJP won 72 seats and was leading at 31 while its ally Shiv Sena bagged 47 seats and was ahead in 10 constituencies.

From the Opposition camp, the Congress won 31 seats and was leading at 15 while its alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won 45 and was leading at 9 seats.

Going by the results and trends, the BJP's tally is lesser by 19 seats compared to its performance in the last Assembly elections held in 2014 when it got 122 seats. Shiv Sena had 63 seats last time.

The NCP improved its performance significantly as it had got 41 seats in the last Assembly elections, when the Congress had got 42 seats.

In the by-polls held in 51 Assembly constituencies across 17 states, the BJP won 16 Assembly seats and was leading in one. The Congress, which was decimated in the general elections in May, bagged 11 seats in the by-elections held on October 21.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi/Mumbai, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) Auto sector's diminishing fortunes seem to have dented the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) electoral prospects in major automobile producing states of Haryana and Maharashtra.

Automobile manufacturing belts, like Gurugram-Manesar in Haryana and Chakan-Pune in Maharashtra, house companies such as Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter, and thousands of auto ancillaries.

Also, as the economic slowdown hit industries in these states, the BJP could not record the level of electoral victory it was expected to achieve.

"The people here faced hardships due to the slowdown and lay-offs, which impacted the BJP's electoral prospects to some extent," said Rajesh Shukla, General Secretary of the Hero MotoCorp Workers Union.

In Haryana, the BJP failed to cross the halfway mark in the 90-member Assembly. The BJP won 40 seats, but all its Ministers lost, barring one. The BJP had set a target of winning 75 seats in Haryana.

In Maharashtra, the BJP had targeted 200 plus seats in the 288-member Assembly. It's poised to win 103 seats and its ally, the Shiv Sena, over 57 seats.

According to industry insiders and locals, the economy of these areas is dependent upon the income generated via employment and other businesses associated with automobile manufacturing.

The slowdown, which led to lay-offs and lesser numbers of production days at the factories in these belts, impacted local businesses more than anywhere else in the country.

The auto industry is facing a demand slowdown on account of high goods and services tax (GST), farm distress, stagnant wages and liquidity constraints.

In September, all major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) comprising passenger, commercial, two- and three-wheeler manufacturers reported massive decline in domestic sales.

As per the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) sales figures, the overall sectoral off-take in the domestic market plunged 22.41 per cent in September. In August, it had declined 23.55 per cent.

This level of downturn was witnessed only once earlier, in December 2000, when the decline was registered at 21.81 per cent. The available data series started in 1997-98.

According to industry estimates, around 15,000 contractual manufacturing jobs have been lost and another million are at risk if the slowdown is not reversed.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) Ahead of the Assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra, the Congress faced a daunting task of keeping its house in order following a number of party workers defecting the party and some openly rebelling against the leadership after the rout in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, the grand old party has fared well in the Assembly polls in both the states.

In Maharashtra, several Congress MLAs had quit the party starting June this year when Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, who was also the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, resigned as the Congress MLA.

Patil has now successfully contested the Assembly elections on a BJP ticket from Shirdi.

After Patil, MLA Abdul Sattar left the Congress to join the Shiv Sena. He contested the Assembly elections from Sillod constituency and has won.

Former Congress minister Kripa Shankar Singh quit the party but hasn't contested the elections.

The Congress also faced a tough job of keeping dissenters in the party from speaking out against the party line. Senior party leader and former Mumbai Congress chief Milind Deora favoured the BJP government's decision to abrogate Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. Another former Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam openly criticised Deora's comments and brought their differences to the fore. Both Deora and Nirupam also stayed away from former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's rallies in the state.

In Haryana, weeks before the polls, Kumari Selja replaced Ashok Tanwar as Congress' state chief and his bete noire former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was made the Congress Legislature Party leader.

The infighting in Congress' Haryana unit reached the doorstep of party's interim President Sonia Gandhi when Tanwar and his supporters started protesting the decision but also alleging corruption in distribution of Haryana tickets outside her home in Delhi. Three days later, Tanwar resigned from the primary membership of the party.

Devender Singh Babli, a close confidante of Tanwar, also quit the party and contested as a Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) candidate from Tohana Assembly seat and defeated BJP state unit chief Subhash Barala.

On October 12, just nine days before the polls, Selja expelled 16 people from the party for contesting as "rebels" against its official nominees.

Those expelled among others, included former MP Ranjit Singh, former minister Nirmal Singh, former Haryana Legislative Assembly deputy speaker Azad Mohmmad and former chief parliamentary secretary (CPS) Zile Ram Sharma.

( 410 Words)

2019-10-24-20:10:04
Source: IANS

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By Quaid Najmi

Mumbai, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The 78-year-old Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar emerged a giant-killer of sorts - achieving in Satara what the mighty Mughal emperors couldn't do centuries ago - by vanquishing a "Chhatrapati" in the Satara bypoll.

NCP nominee Shriniwas Patil, a former IAS officer-turned-politician and an ex-governor of Sikkim, successfully trounced Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale, an erstwhile close confidante of Pawar who quit NCP in September for his 'ghar wapasi' to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Patil defeated Bhosale by a massive margin of over 83,000 votes in the constituency, once a Congress bastion but after 1999, a NCP stronghold.

The 13th direct descendent of the legendary Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji, Bhosale was elected to the Lok Sabha in May this year on an NCP ticket, but four months later abruptly switched over to the BJP - which he had left almost 12 years ago.

He was renominated by the BJP to contest the bypoll which he lost, prompting even Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to express regret.

For the NCP and Pawar, it was almost a prestige issue to capture the Satara parliamentary seat, also the seat of the erstwhile Chhatrapatis and the NCP chief spared no efforts in his attempt.

Besides aggressively campaigning, three days before the elections, Pawar campaigning fully drenched in pouring rain, captured the hearts of the people there and videos of the rally speech stormed social media with laudatory comments.

He further endeared himself to the masses by unabashedly proclaiming that he had committed "a political error" by selecting Bhosale for the last Lok Sabha elections and appealed to the voters to elect Patil, a former two-time member of the lower house of Parliament representing the pre-delimitation seat of Karad.

Bhosale himself has bagged the Satara Lok Sabha seat with good margins thrice in the past on an NCP ticket, but deserted his mentor Pawar who faced a grave crisis with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) naming him in the alleged scams in Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank last month, and the sudden resignation of his nephew Ajit Pawar on poll-eve.

"We respect the Satara seat. It was once the throne of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Those who did not respect them have been rejected by the people," Pawar commented on the big victory without taking names.

In the past, the prestigious seat had elected the fifth Deputy Prime Minister of India, late Yeshwantrao B. Chavan and another member of the Chhatrapati clan, Abhaysinh Shahumaharaj Bhosale.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) In Bharatiya Janata Party's attempt to form government in Haryana without Jannayak Janata Party's support, former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda is scheduled to hold a meeting with BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday.

Kanda, who claims to have at least 5 independent MLAs on his side, is said to have left for Delhi for the meeting to decide on the chances of giving support to the BJP in forming a government in the state.

Kanda had lost assembly elections in 2014, but managed to turn his fortune around this time and has successfully won the election from Sirsa assembly seat by a slender margin of 602 votes.

According to the latest trends, the BJP has managed to win 33 seats while it is leading on 7 others. The party has emerged as the single largest party in the state, but going by the trends, it will fall short of the half-way mark of 45 seats.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) Ignored by the select coterie of Rahul Gandhi, the old satraps of India's grand old party are finally back at the Congress nerve centre. Among them, Ahmed Patel, the man widely credited for Congress' major wins in 2004 and 2009 general elections, seems to be a key player in the party's gradual revival.

Patel(70), the National Treasurer of the Party along with a few other veterans, was given liberty to strategise party's key moves in Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly polls, under the new interim President Sonia Gandhi.

After Thursday's election results, which show an improved tally for the Congress, a general impression at 24 Akbar Road was that if Sonia Gandhi had taken the charge much earlier, Haryana would have been swept by the Congress and that Maharshtra could have done much better.

Sources said that Ahmed Patel re-connected Sonia Gandhi with the old guard, including former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was sidelined by Rahul for the past couple of years.

In Maharashtra, the party gave more importance to its ally Sharad Pawar, the regional satrap considered the most influential leader in Maratha politics. Besides, several congress leaders who had a limited influence on the ground were sidelined. The party even ignored its prominent TV panelist Sanjay Nirupam who was at loggerheads with the Maharashtra party leadership.

In Haryana too, Sonia Gandhi made several changes. One was removal of its state chief Ashok Tanwar. Sources said to pacify Hooda, Patel had convinced Sonia Gandhi to remove the state party chief Tanwar, once said to be close to Rahul Gandhi. Kumari Selja, who like Hooda, was also against Tanwar for his several whimsical decisions, was brought in as the state chief. Ahmed Patel ensured that Selja, a former Union minister, and Hooda worked as a team in smoothly managing the Assembly polls.

While chalking out pre-poll strategies, including the crucial by-elections at 54 seats, Sonia Gandhi gave importance to senior leaders(and CMs) in decision-making, especially in the selection of candidates.

"Ms Gandhi and Ahmed bhai were courteous enough to accept almost all the suggestions from Chief Ministers Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan), Kamal Nath (Madhya Pradesh) and Captain Amarinder Singh (Punjab) while finalising the list of candidates or while implementing other strategies in their respective states. These veteran leaders with decades of experience are really capable of countering BJP's every move... see Thursday's overall results..I feel one can say the party is now on a revival mode," said a prominent Congress leader and a sitting Lok Sabha MP.

According to him, Sonia Gandhi's decision in appointing veteran leader Subhash Chopra as President of the Delhi unit would also bring promising results for the party in the forthcoming Assembly polls.

Only six months back, before the Lok Sabha elections, the old guard of the Congress was hardly welcomed at the office of the then Congress President Rahul Gandhi. Instead, an inner circle, dubbed as an "elite coterie of outsiders," was influencing most of the decisions taken by the party high command.

For instance, former ICICI bank official Alankar Sawai or foreign returned Kaushal Vidhyarthi, said to be close to Rahul, wielded tremendous clout in the party. Former IAS officer K. Raju and an ex-JNU student leader Sandeep Singh were the other outsiders in Rahul's inner coterie who were virtually running the show at 12 Tughlak Lane, the official residence of former Congress President in New Delhi.

However after Sonia Gandhi's re-emergence in the Congress, the party stalwarts are back in the decision-making. For the party, the results seem to be far better.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Congress on Thursday asserted that the mandate in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections was against the BJP.

"We do not agree with Amit Shah's view that this BJP's victory. The Congress feels the mandate is against the BJP," said senior Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma.

Insisting that Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had no moral authority to form the government in the state again, he reiterated party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda's statement that all anti-BJP parties should come together to form the government.

He said the Congress has increased its tally in Maharashtra from the previous election. "The silver lining is that the BJP has lost the confidence of the people," he added.

Sharma also slammed the media for showing opinion and exit polls contrary to the actual results.

In Maharashtra, the NCP-Congress alliance has crossed the hundred seat mark, while in Haryana, the Congress has managed to double its tally and has prevented the BJP from getting a majority.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) failed to open its account in the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly polls with party leaders saying they were focusing on the upcoming polls in Delhi.

In the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the AAP fielded its candidates on 46 seats, while it was contesting on 24 of the 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra.

Till 6 p.m., the Assembly trends, as per the Election Commission, showed that the AAP managed to get only 0.48 per cent votes in Haryana and 0.11 per cent in Maharashtra -- lower than NOTA.

When contacted the Maharashtra unit said they did not get much time to prepare for the polls.

"We took the decision of contesting very late. Also, the party was not contesting across all the seats in Maharashtra. This is just to register our presence in the state. The party did not put in too many efforts also from Delhi," a leader from Maharashtra told IANS.

For the 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra, both the National Convenor of AAP Arvind Kejriwal and senior party leader Sanjay Singh went to campaign for just one seat. However, for Haryana, no AAP leader went for the campaign.

When contacted, a party leader from Haryana told IANS over the phone that the AAP was putting all its focus on the upcoming Delhi polls.

"The party took a conscious decision to use its resources in Delhi. The party has more chances of winning in Delhi. We were contesting in Haryana to mark our presence," the Haryana leader said.

The AAP had faced similar results in 2017 in Goa, where it did not win a single seat in the 40-member legislature. The AAP also failed to open its account in the 2017 Gujarat Assembly polls where all its 29 candidates lost their deposits. In the 2018 Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh the picture was the same.

It was only in the 2017 Punjab Legislative Assembly election that the party bagged 20 seats. The AAP scored a landslide victory in the 2015 Delhi Assembly polls where it bagged 67 of the 70 seats.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The perceived politics of vendetta unleashed by the BJP led central government by using enforcement agencies against opposition leaders, has failed to pass muster with the electorate with the big winners in the election results being Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar, Chhagan Bhujbal of the NCP in Maharashtra, Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress in Haryana and Samajwadi Party's Azam Khan in Uttar Pradesh.

If anything, the cases of corruption against the Opposition may have had the effect of evoking sympathy and consolidating the support base. Election results for Haryana and Maharashtra assembly pleasantly surprised the Opposition leaders who had the last laugh and would be feeling vindicated by the electoral victories.

They had been facing the wrath of enforcement agencies like the ED and the CBI and Opposition parties had been crying foul that they are being targeted unfairly for political reasons.

NCP Chief and Maharashtra political heavyweight Sharad Pawar said that the people did not like the arrogance and frenzy of power with slogans like "Ab ki baar 220 ke paar". He said power comes and goes but there is a need to remain grounded." Pawar's confidant, Praful Patel also had many controversies of underworld links in the run up to the elections.

Many Opposition bigwigs won big in Maharashtra. Ajit Pawar, Sharad Pawar's nephew facing multiple cases including money laundering won by a monstrous 1.65 lakh votes. Former Congress CM Ashok Chavan, who was also mired in multiple controversies, won by 97,000 votes. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis won by 30,000 votes.

When Sharad Pawar was summoned by the ED in Mumbai before the elections, there was a huge mobilization which helped him score a strong political point. MNS chief, Raj Thackeray, who was aligned with the Opposition, was also called for a long round of questioning by the ED.

The biggest victory margin in Haryana was of Congress heavyweight Bhupinder Hooda, who has been facing multiple land related cases including the ones linked to Robert Vadra.

Kuldeep Bishnoi, son of former Haryana CM, Bhajan Lal also won the election. He recently had a hotel in Gurgaon that was attached by the enforcement authorities.

Azam Khan of the SP who was facing multiple enforcement actions from the central agencies and UP government had some relief as his wife, Tazeen Fatma won the Rampur assembly by election.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) Haryana was set for a hung Assembly on Thursday with no party appearing in a position to cross the halfway mark in the 90-member House, but in Maharashtra, the BJP-Shiv Sena was well placed to retain power.

According to the latest trends available with the Election Commission, the ruling BJP won 15 seats and was leading in 23 other constituencies in Haryana, still 8 short of the majority figures.

Close on the heels was Congress, winning 12 seats and leading in 21.

Newcomer Jannayak Janata Dal (JJP) was victorious in 5 constituencies and was ahead in 5 others, making it a possible kingmaker, along with 6 Independents, one of whom won and 5 were leading.

Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which ruled the state for four times in nthe past, was leading in merely 1 seat.

The outcome of the Assembly polls held on October 21 is a setback for the BJP, which had won 47 seats in the last state elections in 2014. The party had been expressing confidence about raising its tally beyond 75 this time, using the nationalist pitch of abolition of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and the Balakot air strike.

The results and the trends come as a shocker for the saffron party, particularly since it had won all the 10 seats in the Lok Sabha elections held just five months back.

The BJP had formed the government in Haryana for the first time in 2014, when it improved its tally from 4 in the previous elections.

The Congress, on the other hand, improved its performance substantially in this Assembly elections as it had managed only 15 seats the last time and had failed to open its account in the April-May Lok Sabha elections.

The INLD, which ruled the state the last time from 2000 to 2004, stood second with 19 seats in the last Assembly elections and was the main Opposition party in the outgoing House.

JJP was formed in December last year after Dushyant Chautala, the grandson of four-time Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, split from INLD following a bitter fight in the family.

The Congress has already begun efforts to woo JJP leader Dushyant Chautala but he has refused to spell out his future course of action, saying it will be decided after the party's meeting on Friday.

In Maharashtra, where 288 seats are at stake, the BJP won 35 seats and was leading in 66 while its ally Shiv Sena bagged 24 seats and was ahead in 34 constituencies, taking their combined lead tally to 159, 15 more than the half way mark.

From the Opposition camp, the Congress won 16 seats and was leading in 29 while its alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won 18 seats and was leading in 35 seats.

Going by the results and trends in Maharashtra, the BJP's tally is lesser by 22 seats compared to its performance in the last Assembly elections held in 2014. Shiv Sena had won 63 seats last time.

The NCP appears to have improved its performance significantly as it had got 41 seats in the last Assembly elections, while the Congress had managed 42 seats.

Source: IANS

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Mumbai, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) In a big stunner, the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena saw as many as eight ministers - five and three, respectively - lose the Maharashtra Assembly elections as per the poll results announced on Thursday.

The biggest loss was the defeat of the high-profile Pankaja Munde from Parli (Beed district) which was her family bastion. She was trounced by her estranged cousin and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)'s Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde.

The other losing ministers from the BJP include Anil Bonde from Morshi (Amravati district), Ram Shinde who was vanquished by NCP President Sharad Pawar's grandnephew Rohit Pawar in his maiden election from Karjat-Jamkhed (Ahmednagar), Sanjay 'Bala' Bhegade from Maval (Pune), and Parinay Fuke from Sakoli (Nagpur) who was trounced by Congress' strongman Nana F. Patole.

The Sena ministers who were defeated are Vijaybapu Shivtare from Purandar (Pune district), Arjun Khotkar from Jalna and Jaydatta Kshirsagar from Beed.

A majority of these ministers had faced some or the scam allegations leveled by the Opposition parties in the past five years.

Source: IANS

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Chandigarh, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The ruling BJP in Haryana led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday won 40 seats but failed to cross the halfway mark in the 90-member Assembly.

Also all the party's state ministers, except two, lost the polls, including Anil Vij and party chief Subhash Barala.

However, the rival Congress won 31 seats, while the less than 12-month-old Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), which broke away from the state's once major regional Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) owing to family disputes, won 10 seats.

The INLD won a lone seat against 19 in 2014 Assembly election. Eight independents have also won.

While Khattar retained his Karnal seat with a comfortable margin, two-time Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda too managed to win in his bastion of Garhi Sampla-Kiloi in Rohtak district.

Khattar won by 45,188 votes over his nearest rival Tarlochan Singh of the Congress.

BJP's outgoing ministers Captain Abhimanyu, O.P. Dhankar, Ram Bilas Sharma, Kavita Jain, Krishan Lal Panwar, Manish Grover, and Krishan Kumar Bedi, all ended up with humiliating defeats.

But BJP candidate and Public Health and Engineering Minister Banwari Lal won the Bawal seat. Also Health Minister Anil Vij retained his seat from Ambala Cantonment.

Two sitting ministers, Rao Narbir Singh and Vipul Goel, were denied tickets and fresh faces were brought in.

Sitting Congress legislator Kuldeep Bishnoi, whose hotel worth Rs 150 crore in a prime location of Gurugram has been attached by the Income Tax department, retained his stronghold of Adampur by defeating his nearest rival and TikTok celebrity Sonali Phogat of the BJP by over 29,000 votes.

JJP chief Dushyant Chautala and his mother Naina Chautala won the Uchana Kalan and Badhra seats, respectively.

Outgoing Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu, who lost to JJP candidate and BJP rebel Ram Kumar Gautam in the Narnaud constituency in Hisar district by a margin of 12,029 votes, admitted his defeat during counting.

With it becoming clear that the BJP would not form the government on its own, its state unit chief Subhash Barala also lost the Tohana Assembly seat in Fatehabad district by more than 20,000 votes to JJP's Devender Singh Babli.

Barala has quashed rumours of his resignation from his post after his defeat.

BJP candidate and former Indian hockey captain Sandeep Singh defeated Congress' Mandeep Chatha in Pehowa. This was the BJP's first win in the constituency.

While BJP candidate and international wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt faced defeat, another of its candidates, wrestler Babita Phogat, emerged third in the Dadri constituency in Bhiwani.

Another prominent defeat for the BJP is its sitting legislator Prem Lata, 59, wife of former Union minister Birender Singh, who was defeated by JJP chief Dushyant Chautala, great grandson of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal.

Congress' national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, who lost by a mere 1,246 votes to BJP's Leela Ram, conceded defeat from Kaithal.

Surjewala, a two-time MLA, was seeking his third term from Kaithal, once a known stronghold of the Surjewala family.

Congress leader Kiran Chaudhary, however, retained her Tosham seat by over 12,000 votes.

The Congress candidate from Ferozepur Jhirka in Mewat, Mamman Khan, defeated BJP's Naseem Ahmed, an INLD defector. Ahmed had won this seat in the 2014 and 2009 Assembly elections.

BJP's Zakir Hussain, who was the sitting legislator in Nuh constituency, lost his seat to Congress' Aftab Ahmed as the latter won by a margin of 4,038 votes.

BJP's Pramod Vij and Mahipal Dhanda won Panipat City and Rural seats, respectively.

The JJP appears set to play kingmaker in the state. Dushyant Chautala said he has called a meeting of the party executive at 11 a.m. on Friday in Delhi to discuss the party's strategy.

JJP candidate Ram Niwas won from Narwana (reserved). He contested against BJP's Santosh Rai. JJP candidate Ram Karan won from Shahbad (reserved) by a margin of 37,127 votes against BJP's Krishan Kumar.

Another JJP candidate Amarjeet Dhanda has won from Julana beating the incumbent Parminder Singh Dhull, who switched to the BJP from the INLD.

Independent candidate Nayan Pal Rawat won from Prithala.

INLD's Abhay Chautala won the party's lone seat of Ellenabad.

Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) President Gopal Kanda registered a win from Sirsa seat. He extended unconditional support to the BJP.

After winning his seat, Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the mandate is against the BJP government.

"The mandate is against the current government of Haryana, and all parties should come together to form a strong government whether it's JJP, BSP, INLD or independent candidates," Hooda told reporters.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah here on Thursday thanked the people of Maharashtra for showing confidence in the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance. The two parties have collectively won 93 seats and are leading in 66 seats.

In a tweet in Hindi, he congratulated Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for their efforts.

"Thanks to the people of Maharashtra for expressing their confidence in the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance. Under the leadership of Narendra Modi, the state government will continue to be dedicated to the progress of the state and service to the people," Shah said.

The BJP is emerging as the single largest party in the 288-member Assembly. Final results are yet to be announced.

Source: IANS

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Chandigarh, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The ruling BJP in Haryana, which failed to cross the halfway mark in the 90-member Assembly, will present its case to form the government late Thursday evening, it is learnt.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will be meeting Governor Satyadev Narayan Arya here to stake claim to form the government.

The BJP won 40 seats, but all its state ministers lost, barring two, including Anil Vij and state party chief Subhash Barala.

However, the rival Congress won 31 seats, while less than 12-month-old Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), which broke away from the state's once major regional party Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) owing to family disputes, won 10 seats.

Nine others, comprising independents, have also won.

Source: IANS

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Mumbai, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday credited all the Bharatiya Janata Party allies for its victory in the Maharashtra Assembly elections even as ally Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray played hard ball by saying "there is no hurry to form the government."

"I am thankful to the people of the state for reposing faith in us again, and all the allies for working hard for this victory," said Fadnavis, taking care to downplay his party's prominence.

Though the BJP's tally has fallen this time, there is no substantial increase in the strength of the opposition parties, Fadnavis said, adding that peoples' expectations may have increased.

"We accept the verdict of the people. There is little doubt that we would be forming the next government with the support of all our allies," Fadnavis asserted.

At a separate media briefing, Thackeray reminded the BJP of the pre-Lok Sabha elections understanding of a 50:50 power-sharing formula, including sharing the post of Chief Minister.

"There is no hurry to form the government," Thackeray said, indicating that he would consider all options after the final results are declared.

Earlier on Thursday, Sena MP Sanjay Raut had raised the similar demand of 50:50 power-sharing ratio as was decided with the top BJP leadership.

"There will be no change in the situation. Even the post of Chief Minister has already been decided with the Sena leaders. There will be a 'Maha-Yuti' government soon," Fadnavis said, dismissing speculation that the Sena might explore options.

The statement came shortly after Congress MP Hussain Dalwai offered the party's support to Sena if it was ready to form the government.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has hailed the results of the Haryana and Maharashtra assembly polls and bypolls in Punjab saying "We really won the show, with a little more effort, we would have won".

The party did not campaign much in Haryana. Only Rahul Gandhi campaigned for two days in the BJP ruled state.

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is in Rae Bareli, said, "I am really happy for both the states. We are also happy about the fact that here in UP our vote percentage has increased."

"Sonia Gandhi taking centrestage has come with good news. Though Congress could not form the government, the results are encouraging," said K. C. Venugopal, General Secretary of the Congress.

When Rahul decided to quit as the party president after the Lok Sabha election verdict, the party was hard put to find a replacement.

However, Sonia Gandhi, who took over as interim Congress president in August this year, did not campaign at all and her only rally scheduled for Maharashtra was also cancelled.

Rahul addressed rallies in Nuh and Mahendragarh in Haryana and Congress won both the seats. The supporters of the former Congress president say if Rahul had campaigned more, the Congress would have won more seats.

The Haryana Assembly results show that the Congress old guard was right in choosing former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to lead the party in the state.

The grand old party proved all exit polls wrong by catapulting itself close to a majority.

The old guard that includes Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel had major roles in the selection of the new party setup in Haryana. Both Hooda and state unit President Kumari Selja are close to senior leader Ahmed Patel.

Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi's appointee Ashok Tanwar has now left the party.

In Maharashtra too, the party replaced former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan at the helm with Balasaheb Thorat. In the Mumbai unit, the party appointed Eknath Gaikwad as the acting president after Milind Deora resigned from the post following the Lok Sabha poll debacle.

These moves appear to indicate that the Congress is returning to the Sonia era. While the choice of the younger lot for Delhi Congress chief was either Alka Lamba or Kirti Azad, the party appointed veteran Subhash Chopra to the post.

The dissolution of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) on Wednesday also speaks of the old guard having its way in key decisions.

Source: IANS

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Chandigarh, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) Haryana's regional outfit, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which won 19 seats in the 2014 assembly elections, has been virtually wiped out in this election.

However, its less than 12-month-old defected Jannayak Janata Party (BJP) emerges a key player in the next government formation by winning at least 10 seats in a 90-member assembly. The INLD won the lone seat.

Interestingly, the original party diminished, but the third and fourth generations of its founder and former Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal survived by winning their respective seats.

The Chautala clan who won the elections are Abhay Singh, Dushyant, Naina and Aditya Devi Lal.

Dushyant Chautala, the great grandson of the late Devi Lal, who led the newly formed JJP won from Uchana Kalan in Jind district by defeating sitting legislator Prem Lata, 59, wife of former Union Minister Birender Singh.

His party contested all 90 assembly seats.

So is his estranged uncle and Devi Lal's grandson Abhay Singh Chautala, who retained Ellenabad seat in Sirsa.

Dushyant's mother Naina Chautala won from Badhra in Bhiwani district on JJP ticket.

The BJP fielded Devi Lal's grandson Aditya Devi Lal from Dabwali in Sirsa district, but he lost the seat to Congress' Amit Sihag.

Dushyant, a business administration graduate from California State University, parted ways with the INLD in December 2018 after a bitter vertical split in the party and the Chautala family.

Former Member of Parliament Dushyant's father, Ajay Chautala, is the elder son of four-time Chief Minister and INLD President Om Prakash Chautala.

The INLD, which ruled the state the last time from 2000 to 2004, was divided owing to difference between Ajay and Abhay Chautala. Their father remained with the younger son Abhay.

Abhay, however, turned down former Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda's offer of joining hands in forming the government.

"My party shall never support Congress," Chautala told the the media.

"The Congress is the party that hatched the conspiracy to frame INLD's chief Om Prakash Chautala and senior leader Ajay Chautala in a corruption case and got them imprisoned. We can never forgive the party for such conspiracy against our senior leaders. We can never support Congress, whose leader (Bhupinder Singh Hooda) is facing corruption charges," he added.

Source: IANS

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Mumbai, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena were in a leading position in Maharashtra as per the Election Commission of India (ECI) figures of the results of 164 constituencies declared till 1700 hrs on Thursday.

The BJP had won 52 seats and was leading in another 50, while ally Shiv Sena bagged 39 seats and notched leads in another 17.

The Opposition Nationalist Congress Party put up a spectacular show by winning 29 seats and leading in 25 more, while ally Congress won 24 and was ahead in the vote count in 22 more seats.

Among the smaller parties and independents, the Bahujan Vikash Aghadi had won one and was leading in two seats, and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen bagged two seats.

The Prahar Janshakti Party won 2, Krantikari Shetkari Party, Samajwadi Party and Swabhimani Shetkari Party bagged one each.

Among the independents five were declared victorious and were leading in eight other constituencies.

Maharashtra voted for a new 288-member Assembly on October 21, the results of which are being declared today.

Source: IANS

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Panaji, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The reputation of BJP leadership for breaking their promises made at the party's highest decision-making level, should weigh on the mind of Dushyant Chautala, whose Jannanayak Janata Party is emerging as the kingmaker in Haryana, former Goa Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai said here on Thursday.

Still smarting from being dropped from the Goa cabinet in July this year, Sardesai, whose Goa Forward continues to be a part of the NDA alliance, on Thursday, said that the vote counting trends in Maharashtra and Haryana indicate that people cannot be fooled by speeches and slogans alone.

Commenting on the Assembly election results in Haryana, in which the BJP has fared below expectations, Sardesai said: "My advice to him (Chautala)... You have to observe the Goa situation and take an appropriate decision. Even at the highest level the BJP breaks its word. This is being discussed in the media".

Ever since he was unceremoniously dropped from the state cabinet by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant following the death of his predecessor Manohar Parrikar, Sardesai has maintained that the top BJP leadership had assured him that the alliance would continue for five years.

Sardesai has also charged that none of the top BJP leaders, who gave him this assurance were willing to speak with him, when he along with two other ministers, were dropped from the cabinet in July.

Commenting on the below par performance of the BJP in the two politically significant states of Maharashtra and Haryana, Sardesai said that media management cannot help manage election results.

"You cannot fool people with speeches and slogans... It is being reflected in results. However you manage the media through exit polls, results cannot be managed," Sardesai said.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The impressive performance by the Congress in the Haryana assembly polls can be credited to its senior leader and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who virtually compelled the party leadership to project him as the party's face in the polls.

Hooda, almost on his own, pulled the party from a state of despondency to increase its numbers in the Assembly from 15 to 31.

While top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, campaigned hard, the Congress fight was mostly left to Hooda along with state president Kumari Selja as no central leader actively took part in the electioneering. Only Rahul Gandhi held two rallies in the state for the October 21 election.

It was do-or-die battle for Hooda, who was on the verge of leaving the party. The two-time chief minister was sidelined after Congress was decimated in two consecutive Lok Sabha polls. Internal rift within the party surfaced after former Congress president Rahul Gandhi promoted Ashok Tanwar in the state.

A few months ago, Hooda at a rally in Rohtak launched a veiled attack on the Congress and its top leaders. From the dais at the rally he had threatened: "My workers will decide whether I should be with the Congress or do something else."

The Congress top leadership was in complete mess with Rahul Gandhi resigning the post of party president. When Sonia Gandhi became interim party chief, she brought Hooda on board and made him the chief of the election management committee.

Sonia Gandhi also defused the internal conflict by removing Tanwar as state party president and making Selja as state head. Tanwar, who is at loggerheads with Hooda, had even protested outside Sonia Gandhi's house over the distribution of tickets for elections.

Hooda had made it clear to Sonia that without him, the party would not be able to get into the fight mode. He had also told Sonia that the party would face a tough situation in the state.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The loud nationalistic pitch which resulted in a landslide for the ruling BJP in the Lok Sabha elections has not been as effective in the Assembly elections of Haryana and Maharashtra.

Although it is still early days, but it will also raise questions on having the concept of a working President in J.P. Nadda, as these were the first elections fought on his watch. Amit Shah, as BJP President, has seen the emergence of one of the most powerful political and election machinery ever seen in the country.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah made repeated and boisterous references to abrogation of Article 370 in J&K and cross-border Balakot strikes during election campaigning, the election results where the BJP has not been able to repeat its previous performance shows clearly that fatigue may be setting in on such issues and economic and agrarian issues raised by the Opposition may be getting more traction with the electorate.

Faced with a clear loss of face in Haryana, the BJP has managed to get around 40 seats compared to a much higher tally of 47 in the previous term. This is a big comedown from the "Ab ki Baar 75 Paar" slogan of the BJP Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. The BJP won all 10 LS seats in Haryana and 42 out of the 48 seats along with Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.

In Maharashtra, where the BJP fought in alliance with the Shiv Sena, its tally is down by 20 seats while Sharad Pawar's NCP has made big gains in rural areas of its bastion in western Maharashtra. NCP chief Sharad Pawar said that so many defectors who had joined the BJP have not succeeded.

While the BJP may still form the governments in both states, the erosion of votes in the assembly comes just five months after the landslide in the Lok Sabha elections.

On the other hand, the Opposition which has been in disarray has continued to raise bread and butter issues of economic slowdown and agriculture distress.

While the narrative was clearly focused on Article 370 and Pakistan in election rallies, the BJP leadership, for instance in Haryana, pointed out that many jawans from the state have been killed in J&K, while the resource-less and divided Opposition has sprung a surprise.

This also raises the question whether the BJP election machinery is more formidable than its governance record? While the BJP under Modi-Shah has been unchallenged in the Lok Sabha elections, a formidable election winner, starting with last year's assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka, among the major states, has seen reverses at the state assembly level.

In the states that it rules, the BJP may be finding it difficult to garner the same amount of public support even though it may be forming the government in some cases. At the state level, despite the leadership's assertion of the advantages of having a double engine of growth at the Centre and state, voters may be having different ideas.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly poll results have indicated return of Ahmed Patel and that the Congress Chanakya can still deliver whatever may be the political situation.

The poll results also have the mark of Sonia Gandhi and Patel. When the party entered the fray, it was caught in a precarious situation, had limited resources and was facing cash crunch.

Maharashtra and Haryana polls outcomes have infused a new life in the Congress and the party is gearing up for a bigger fight with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The party has called several meetings in the next few days to streamline its functioning and finalise strategic stand on various issues facing the party and the nation.

On Friday, it will deliberate upon issues like divestment, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), according to a senior leader.

Before the elevation of Rahul Gandhi as the party president, Patel played significant role in the party affairs and his voice was considered a command. During the Rahul era, he limited himself to his domain.

However, Patel proved his mettle by defeating BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls despite BJP chief Amit Shah managing the affairs in Gujarat.

After the exit of Rahul Gandhi, Patel was back in action. Return of Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kumari Selja, both considered close to him, in Haryana also announced his arrival in the party power corridor. And they didn't prove him wrong.

Despite then Haryana party chief Ashok Tanwar being close to Rahul Gandhi, Patel could convince him to allow Hooda play a bigger role.

In Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan was replaced by Balasaheb Thorat, and Milind Deora was replaced by Eknath Gaekwad. The smooth seat-sharing pact with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) also proved Patel right.

Though the Congress could not return to power, the good show at the hustings indicate comeback of Team Sonia that ousted the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) from power in 2004 and ran two successive governments.

And the confidante of Sonia Gandhi will play a major role in party affairs in the coming future.

Source: IANS

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Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) It's even-steven for traditional political rivals CPI-M and Congress, which won 2 seats each in the Kerala Assembly bypolls on Thursday, while IUML retained its Manjeswaram seat.

The ruling CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front wrested the Vatiyoorkavu and Konni seats from the Congress, but lost stronghold Aroor for the first time in half a century.

And on expected lines, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) retained Ernakulam and its ally Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) retained Manjesweram.

In the 140-member Kerala Assembly, the CPI-M-led LDF has 93 seats, the Congress-led UDF has 45 seats and the BJP has 1 seats.

The outcome is a shocker for the Congress as it lost two prestigious seats. In Vatiyoorkavu, Thiruvananthapuram mayor V.K.Prasanth of the CPI-M, trounced former Congress legislator K.Mohankumar by a margin of 14,465 votes. And in Konni, CPI-M's K.U.Jenish defeated P.Mohanraj by 9,953 votes.

The Congress' lose in Konni is being blamed on party MP Adoor Prakash who has represented the seat since 1996. The party had shot down Adoor Prakash's candidate to field P.Mohanraj instead. However, the strongman ensured he didn't win either.

The silver lining for the Congress is its candidate Shanimol Usman wresting Aroor Assembly constituency from the CPI-M after almost five decades. Aroor was represented by CPI-M's A.M. Ariff since 2001. In her first election win, Usman defeated Manu C. Pulickal by 2,079 votes to become the first woman MLA from the UDF in the present Assembly.

In Ernakulam, where a heavy downpour on polling day resulted in a low voter turnout of just 57.90 per cent, Congress' T.J. Vinod won but with a reduced margin of 3,750 votes.

Vinod later said: "I dedicate this victory to my voters. The margin has to do with the heavy rains on the polling day."

UDF's second biggest ally Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) candidate M.C.Kamurdeen won the Manjeswaram Assembly constituency by 7,923 votes.

This is an improvement on IUML's 2016 performance. Its Abdul Razack had defeated his nearest BJP rival K.Surendran by a slender margin of 89 votes. The bypoll was necessitated by Razack's death last year.

The BJP has no reason for cheer in Kerala. Not only did it lose its number two position in Vatiyoorkavu, but in Thiruvananthapuram its candidate and district President S.Suresh garnered a mere 27,453 votes down from 43,700 that Kummanem Rajasekheran got in 2016.

Thanking the voters, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who led the Left campaign, said they have rejected the politics of hate this time too.

Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, who led the UDF campaign, said the results are a proof that the voters have rejected both the Left and the BJP.

"The victory at Aroor for the Congress comes after almost five decades. The BJP has been routed and we, the UDF, will introspect on what happened in Vatiyoorkavu and Konni," said Chennithala.

State Congress President Mullapally Ramachandran said the results clearly show there was a tacit understanding between the Left and the BJP.

"If not for that, how do you explain the BJP candidate getting less than 15,000 votes as compared to the last polls in Vatiyoorkavu. And where have those votes gone? The Congress will sit down on October 27 to discuss where we lost out," said Ramachandran.

State CPI-M secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the political situation that prevailed during the Lok Sabha polls has changed to one favouring the Left.

"The RSS has no scope and space in Kerala politics. If you compare the bypoll results to the Lok Sabha poll results, we have come back strongly in all the five constituencies. We will examine what happened in Aroor," said Balakrishnan.

Source: IANS

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Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The results of the two state Assemblies - Maharashtra and Haryana, that went to polls on Monday, clearly indicate that its a setback for the BJP, said Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here on Thursday.

"The BJP has suffered a setback from its often projected statement of one party rule. This has not happened in Maharashtra and Haryana as the results indicate. Elections to the two states took place a few months after the Lok Sabha polls and it is not according to the BJP's expectations," said Vijayan.

Vijayan was speaking to the media after all the five assembly bypoll results held in Kerala were out. The Left managed to wrest two seats from the Congress.

"The UDF is becoming insignificant as we look into the results which include the Pala assembly seat that we wrested last month from the UDF. In all six seats that went to the polls including Pala, we won three. Looking at it, after three years of our governance, these victories show that people have given their full support to us, as our base has grown. The BJP's divisive tactics has also been rejected outright by the people, giving a clear indication that in Kerala there is no place for communal divide," said Vijayan.

He thanked the voters for giving the LDF a resolute win.

Source: IANS

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By Anindya Banerjee

New Delhi, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) An election that was meant to be a BJP sweep turned out to be a neck to neck contest - that is the Haryana polls results for you. In this highly fluid situation where the JJP wants to be the king rather that the kingmaker and a Hooda-led Congress sprang a surprise, can the BJP still manage to make it to power and if yes, who will be its Chief Minister?

The Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) has already made it abundantly clear that whoever will make its leader Dushyant Chautala the Chief Minister, the party will support them. While, neither the Congress nor the BJP has made their efforts official, both parties have reached out to it.

Scenario 1: The BJP can offer the Deputy Chief Minister's post to Dushyant Chautala while keeping Manohar Lal Khattar the CM. While this will be more than a sweet deal for the BJP, it will mean a political suicide for Chautala junior whose entire politics is based on Jats. Serving as deputy to Khattar will anger his core vote base of Jats and leave his political capital in shambles.

Without naming any party, BJP's national IT Cell chief Amit Malviya told IANS that the party is reaching out to other parties to form government in Haryana.

Scenario 2: BJP can garner support of the 'others' which refers to Independents. BJP sources confirmed to IANS that the party is in touch with at least 7 Independents so far. "If numbers can be managed, Khattar is coming back for a second term. Don't rule us out as yet," said a central BJP leader requesting anonymity.

In fact, one of the independents is Gopal Goyal Kanda, in whose support singer Sapna Chowdhury recently released a video. Her proximity to the BJP is well known. The BJP is likely to use her to approach many independents.

Scenario 3: This is a very unlikely and improbable scenario, but nothing can be off the card in politics. In this scenario, BJP can make Dushyant Chautala the Chief Minister and allow him to lead a government whose main party - the BJP - fought the election on a not so subtle anti-Jat consolidation. While it suits Chautala junior whose stature will only increase in the Jat land, the BJP, which came to power in 2014 on a rainbow coalition of castes who belong to the non-Jat segment of the society, will fan acute mistrust among its voters.

In this election, at least half a dozen sitting ministers of the Khattar government have been defeated. Even big faces like Yogeshwar Dutt or Babita Phogat also tasted defeat. The only face for CM the BJP is left with is Khattar. It's either Khattar or Dushyant Chautala - a non Jat or a Jat.

But given the fluid nature in Haryana, the BJP may explore out the third option. But that seems to be little difficult for the saffron party, given the situation it is in and faced with a Congress that has actively reached out to the JJP.

(Anindya Banerjee can be contacted at anindya.b@ians.in)

Source: IANS

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Mumbai, Oct 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) Notwithstanding the claim of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine of grabbing over 240 seats, the Opposition in Maharashtra succeeded in arresting them to around 160 seats as the final trends and initial results of the Assembly elections trickled out on Thursday.

The Opposition Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine appeared all set to touch the 100-seat mark against the BJP-Sena count of 160 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly.

The remaining seats were being won by Independents and smaller parties -- a situation with serious ramifications on the emerging political permutations and combinations.

NCP President Sharad Pawar declared that "defectors have been rejected by the people" and gave full credit to the efforts of the NCP and Congress workers for the good results, which were far from the predictions made by the various exit polls three days ago.

After the trends started trickling out, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut firmly demanded a 50:50 power sharing formula, throwing a fresh scare to the ally BJP.

Several prominent heavyweights from the the BJP, notably Rural Development Minister Pankaja Munde in Parli (Beed) and Satara Lok Sabha bypoll candidate Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale, bit the dust on their home turfs.

Munde and Bhosale were vanquished by rival NCP's Dhananjay Munde and Shriniwas Dadasaheb Patil, respectively, stunning the BJP. Incidentally, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister and BJP President Amit Shah had campaigned for Munde.

Among the prominent losers in Sena were Mumbai Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar in Bandra East, the home constituency of the Thackerays, and high-profile 'encounter cop' Pradeep H. Sharma in Nala Sopara (Palghar), who was defeated by Bahujan Vikas Aghadi's Kshitij H. Thakur.

A senior Sena leader hinted that subject to the final outcome of the results, its understanding with ally BJP "could be reviewed" amidst the newly available political options before party chief Uddhav Thackeray.

Against this backdrop, the role of independents and smaller parties could gain significance as in many constituencies, they are on their way to trouncing the ruling combine candidates.

Source: IANS

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