Counting for Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana Assembly elections 2024 took place on Tuesday, paving the way for the first elected government in J&K and hattrick for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the latter. While early trends showed a tight fight in Haryana, the BJP later picked up and crossed the majority mark of 46.
The Congress-National Conference (NC) took a comfortable lead in J&K after several rounds of counting, emerging victory in the elections, which have taken place in the Union Territory for the first time since the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.
The counting of votes began at 8 am on Tuesday at 28 counting centres for the 90 seats of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly which went to polls in three phases - September 18, September 25, and October 1. In Haryana, where voting took place on October 5, counting was taking place across 93 in 22 districts.
Assembly Elections Counting | Highlights
NC-Congress Bag Majority In J&K: The National Conference-Congress alliance emerged victorious in Jammu and Kashmir by bagging 48 seats, while the BJP secured 29 seats in the 90-member state Assembly. NC chief Farooq Abdullah had declared that Omar Abdullah would be the next chief minister of J&K as soon as NC-Congress' victory became certain during vote-counting.
PDP In Single Digits In J&K: The Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP won three seats in the Union territory while the Independents won in seven seats in Jammu and Kashmir.
J&K Key Candidates: Key candidates in J&K were National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah, Pradesh Congress president Tariq Hameed Karra, AICC general secretary Ghulam Ahmad Mir and CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami and BJP’s former minister Sham Lal Sharma.
Haryana Results | BJP Set For Hattrick: In Haryana, some reports initially showed the Congress past the majority mark of 46 in the 90-member assembly, but the tables turned as BJP later crossed the magic number after multiple rounds of counting. The BJP won 48 seats in the state, while its main opposition -- Congress -- secured 37 seats.
Key Winners, Losers In Haryana, J&K: Among big winners in Haryana were wrestler Vinesh Phogat who won the Julana seat for Congress, Bhupinder Singh Hooda who won for the party from the Garhi-Sampla-Kiloi seat, CM Nayab Singh Saini who won for BJP from the Ladwa seat. In Jammu and Kashmir, NC's Omar Abdullah won from both Ganderbal and Budgam, BJP's Ravinder Raina lost from the Nowshera seat while PDP's Iltija Mufti lost the Bijbehara-Srigufwara seat.
J&K Exit Polls: The exit polls, which came out on Saturday, predicted pole position for the National Conference-Congress alliance, with the regional party getting the lion's share of the seats. As per pollsters, the BJP was expected to slightly improve on its tally of 25 seats which it had won in the 2014 assembly polls while the PDP, which had won 28 seats in the polls held 10 years ago, was predicted to win less than 10 seats this time.
Haryana Exit Polls: In Haryana, exit polls predicted a return of Congress, which was expected to bag around 55 of the 90 seats alone. The BJP has been in power in Haryana since 2014 with Manohar Lal Khattar as chief minister for over nine years. The BJP's second term in office in 2019 was in alliance with the JJP, with Dushyant Singh Chautala as deputy chief minister.
