The celebrations began at the Congress headquarters even before the counting of votes began.

New Delhi:

After pointing to a comfortable victory for the Congress, the results for Haryana now suggest that the BJP is poised for a hat-trick in the state. As of 11.14 am, the BJP is leading in 48 of the state’s 90 constituencies while the Congress is leading in 36.

A total of seven polls predicted the Congress will win 55 seats, 10 more than the mid-term mark of 45, while the BJP will emerge victorious with 26.

As celebrations outside the Congress headquarters in New Delhi began even before counting began and party supporters danced while dhols were played, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini expressed confidence that the BJP will form the government in Haryana for the third consecutive time.

“We have done a lot of development work over the last 10 years. The system set up by former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar will continue to benefit Haryana for a long time. It is our responsibility to take this good work forward,” Mr Saini, who took over as prime minister from Mr Khattar in March, told reporters this morning.

After indications that the BJP would again form a government in the state, Congress supporters’ sentiments softened but said they were still confident that the party would win.

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

The BJP won just five of the state’s 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana after sweeping all of them in 2019, and the assembly elections in the state and Jammu and Kashmir are an opportunity for the party to prove that it can do so after its failure remains popular with voters – for the first time in 10 years – to achieve a majority in the parliamentary elections on its own.

There is arguably even more at stake for the Congress as the party was almost written off after its massive defeats in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Congress leaders pointed to the party’s 99-seat win in this year’s general election and the INDIA alliance’s performance to talk of a resurgence, and the results in both Haryana and J&K are being seen as a test of this theory.