Caravan News
NEW DELHI – Exit polls on Monday showed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies cruising to a comfortable victory in the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections. The BJP is in power in both states. Chief ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Manohar Lal Khattar look set for a second straight term in office.
The BJP-led NDA was on Monday predicted to retain power in Maharashtra with a huge majority, with IANS-C-Voter Exit Poll giving it between 192 and 216 seats in the 288-member Assembly.
The BJP-Shiv Sena combine had bagged 185 seats in the last Assembly elections held in 2014, after which a government headed by Devendra Fadnavis was formed.
According to the exit poll, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine seemed to be way behind with 55-81 seats. In the last Assembly elections, the Congress-NCP-Maharashtra Navnirman Sena coalition had bagged 84 seats.
In the elections held on Monday, the vote share of the NDA seems to have suffered a slight dip. It is predicted to get 46.4 per cent of votes, whereas it had got 47.2 per cent last time.
The UPA is predicted to get 36.9 per cent of votes, which is a dip from the 38.3 per cent it managed last time.
Region wise, the NDA seems to be getting the maximum of 47-51 seats in Vidarbha and the lowest of 21-25 seats in North Maharashtra. The Mumbai region appears to be giving the ruling coalition 29-33 seats, Konkan 30-34 seats, Marathvada 25-29 seats and West Maharashtra 40-44 seats.
In terms of vote share, the BJP-led coalition seems to be getting 55.3 per cent in Mumbai, 49.1 in Konkan, 48.3 per cent in North Maharashtra, 44.6 per cent in Vidarbha, 44.5 per cent in West Maharashtra and 42.4 per cent in Marathvada.
In the run-up to the elections, the BJP had made a big pitch about revoking Article 370 which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, while the Opposition Congress-NCP combine was focusing on economic slowdown, job losses and agrarian crisis.
Haryana
The ruling BJP looks set for a landslide victory in Haryana, with IANS-CVoter Exit Poll predicting 68-76 seats for the saffron party in the 90-member Assembly.
The Congress is way behind as it is projected to manage only between 3 and 12 seats. Others may get between 5 and 14 seats, the exit poll shows.
The projected performance by the BJP in Haryana is much better than the previous elections in 2014, when the party for the first time formed a government in the state by bagging 47 seats with a vote share of 33.2 per cent.
In the last Assembly elections, the Congress had got 15 seats with a vote share of 20.6 per cent.
Region wise, the BJP this time seems to be scoring the highest in Ahirwal, which appears to be giving the ruling party 22-24 seats. Kurukshetra comes second, as this region appears to be giving the BJP 21-23 seats.
Among other regions, BJP is projected to bag 12-14 seats in Bagar and 13-15 seats in Jatland.
In terms of vote share, the BJP appears to have cornered 44.1 per cent while the Congress seems to have got 27.7 per cent. The Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), a breakaway group of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), seems to have got a substantial chunk of 16.6 per cent votes.
The region wise break-up shows that the BJP got the highest percentage of 47.1 per cent in Kurukshetra, followed by 46.1 per cent in Ahirwal, 40 per cent in Bagar and 39.9 per cent in Jatland, according to the exit poll.
The Congress seems to have got the highest percentage of 32.2 per cent in Jatland region, followed by 29.4 per cent in Ahirwal, 25.4 per cent in Kurukshetra and 24.9 per cent in Bagar.
The JJP appears to have scored well in Bagar region by managing 23.3 per cent, followed by 16.6 per cent in Jatland, 15.6 per cent in Kurukshetra and 13.2 per cent in Ahirwal.
The sample size of the Exit Poll at the time of making the report was 14,407.
The UPA is predicted to bag 25 seats in the West Maharashtra region, 14 in Marathvada, 13 in North Maharashtra, 8 in Vidarbha, 5 in Konkan and the least 4 in Mumbai.
In terms of vote share, the UPA appeared to have got the maximum of 42.4 per cent in Marathvada, followed by 41.7 per cent in North Maharashtra, 41.5 per cent in West Maharashtra, 33.7 per cent in Vidarbha, 28.5 per cent in Konkan and 27.2 per cent in Mumbai.
The sample size in Maharashtra at the time of making the report was 55,553.
(With inputs from IANS)
