New Delhi: 6:25 pm: If BJP is fine joining hands with NCP, they should go ahead with it, says Uddhav Thackeray.
6:20 pm: I have not yet proposed any alliance offers to anyone. But we are ready consider if anyone approaches us: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
6:00 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanks Haryana and Maharashtra for BJP's tremendous victory.
4:30 pm: Congress President Sonia Gandhi in her statement says, "Congress Party accepts the election verdict delivered by the people of Maharashtra and Haryana with humility and resolves to play a constructive and vigilant role....The people of Maharashtra and Haryana trusted us with supporters and voters for having stood by us, and our workers for their tireless and unstinting commitment to the party and its ideology."
4:14 pm: Amit Shah makes it clear that the BJP will form the government in Maharashtra and the CM in both Haryana and Maharashtra will be from the party.
4:08 pm: Speaking on the BJP's success, BJP President Amit Shah said, "Congress is not even in a position to get the LOP post in these assemblies. Our mission of Congress free India is on track. These results prove that people of India have accepted PM Modi as their only leader."
4:07 pm: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's statement, "We accept the verdict of people. People have voted for change, after 15 years of our government in Maharashtra and 10 years in Haryana. I congratulate the BJP on their success. The Congress Party will work hard on the ground to once again earn the confidence of the people."
3:15 pm: The NCP has offered outside support the BJP in Maharashtra even as BJP continues to deny allying with it.
3:03 pm: BJP leader and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on being asked if he is in race for the Maharashtra CM says, "I am happy in Delhi, though I will abide by party's decision."
1:13 pm: One of the frontrunners to be the Haryana CM, BJP's Manoharlal Khattar, has won the Karnal seat by a huge margin of 63773 votes.
1:02 pm: The BJP says that it will form the government in Maharashtra and that the Chief Minister will also be from the party.
12:41 pm: Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda has concede defeat and has congratulated the BJP for winning in the state. "I thank Sonia Gandhi for giving me the support to develop Haryana. I congratulate those who will form the new government in Haryana," Hooda said.
12:02 pm: In an interesting development, BJP's two Chief Ministerial candidates in the running Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra and Captain Abhimanyu Singh is Haryana, are trailing.
11:53 am: In Maharashtra, the game is on. BJP's Kirit Somaiya says, "We are open to taking support from any party which supports our manifesto." On the other hand, Sena chief Udhhav Thackeray says, "The Shiv Sena will go with whichever party works for the betterment of Maharashtra."
11:48 am: In Maharashtra, while the BJP is emerging as the single largest party, there is still no clear picture of what the government will look like. Sources say that not just the BJP, the NCP too is in talks with the Shiv Sena.
11:40 am: Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has won from the Garhi-Sampla-Kiloi seat even as his party, the Congress, has lost in the state.
11:26 am: The Congress has conceded defeat in Haryana and says that the BJP has done well in the state. However, it denies any Modi wave in Maharashtra. "Haryana is something we have to look at as BJP has won remarkably. The NCP break with us proved expensive for us in Maharshtra but the margin from our previous vote share is not huge," says Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
11:15 am: Geeta Bhukkal of the Congress has won from the Jhajjar seat in Haryana.
10:47 am: The BJP is hopeful of forming the government in Maharashtra with the Shiv Sena. "We had both functional and emotional bond with Shiv Sena. No one in BJP was happy with what was happening but Shiv Sena was not realising the ground realities," says BJP leader Sudhanshu Trivedi. The Shiv Sena has given the first indications of reaching out to BJP. Sena MP Anil Desai tells CNN-IBN that the war was restricted to electoral battle and is over now.
10:35 am: Ambala Cantt incumbent MLA Anil Viz has won yet again, beating Congress's Nirmal Singh by 15462 votes. Vij is also one of the contenders for the Chief Minister's post.
10:22 am: The Congress's performance has been dismal in both Haryana and Maharashtra. "There may be a Modi wave but that Modi wave has declined since the Lok Sabha elections," says Congress leader Rajeev Shukla.
10:07 am: Sources in the BJP say that channels of communication with the Shiv Sena are open to form a government in Maharashtra, but they are waiting for a final picture to emerge. Maharashtra BJP President Devendra Fadnavis and other senior leaders Vinod Tawde and Om Mathur are meeting at the BJP office.
10:00 am: Even as the Congress is losing in Haryana, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is leading in his seat.
9:52 am: The BJP says that the Shiv Sena is not its political rival. "We have always said that the Shiv Sena is not our opponent," BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis says. Even as the numbers show that the BJP may be falling short of majority, the party is not losing hope.
9:30 am: While the BJP is moving towards forming the government on its own in Haryana, it is falling short of majority in Maharashtra and is leading in 120 seats with trends for just 2 out of 288 seats remaining. The Shiv Sena is acting tough as the BJP reaches out to it for an alliance. "We will not compromise on our agendas. Uddhav Thackeray will take the final call," says Sena leader Sanjay Raut.
9:21 am: The BJP is now leading in 45 seats, which is the half-way mark in Haryana. However, in Maharashtra, it may find it difficult to reach the half-way mark and is leading in 98 seats.
9:13 am: Even as the BJP is way ahead in Maharashtra and is leading in 89 seats, it may be falling short of the half-way mark. It is not ruling out an alliance with the Shiv Sena in such a scenario, but the party says it is confident of getting majority. In Haryana, the BJP is inching closer to the half-way mark of 45 and is leading in 36 seats.
9:04 am: In Maharashtra now, the BJP is leading in 80 seats while the Shiv Sena is leading in 42 seats. The Congress and the NCP are leading in 24 and 26 seats respectively. In Haryana too, the BJP has moved ahead in 34 seats. The Congress and INLD are fighting it out for the second spot and are leading in 13 and 11 seats respectively.
8:54 am: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's sister Vandana Sharma is leading. Meanwhile, there are celebrations at the BJP headquarters with the party leading in 74 seats in Maharashtra and 24 seats in Haryana.
8:49 am: The BJP is now leading in 60 seats in Maharashtra. The state's former home minister RR Patil is trailing. In Haryana, the BJP is leading in 19 seats, the INLD and Congress are second, leading in 9 seats each. In the Ambala Cantt seat, the incumbent BJP MLA Anil Viz is leading.
8:43 am: The BJP is way ahead in Maharashtra and is leading in 36 seats. The NCP, meanwhile, is not ruling out an alliance with the Shiv Sena. In Haryana, the BJP is leading in 16 seats.
8:37 am: The BJP is now leading in 33 seats in Maharashtra including Mumbai. The Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP are far behind and are leading in 6, 9 and 2 seats respectively. In Haryana, It is still a close contest even as the BJP is leading 6 seats. The Congress, INLD and HJC are leading in 4, 2 and 1 seats respectively.
8:29 am: It seems like a huge lap now as the BJP is leading in 20 seats in Maharashtra. The Congress and the Shiv Sena are neck and neck leading in 6 and 7 seats respectively. In Haryana, it is a close contest. The BJP, Congress, HJC are leading in 1 seat each.
8:26 am: The BJP is leading in 10 seats in Maharashtra with the Shiv Sena being a second, leading in five seats. The Congress has opened its account in Vidarbha and is leading in 1 seat.
8:21 am: The Shiv Sena too is now leading in 3 seats in Maharashtra according to the latest trends. The BJP is leading in 8 seats here. The BJP Parliamentary Board is likely to meet at 6 pm today.
8:16 am: The BJP has got early leads in both Maharashtra and Haryana. In Maharashtra, the BJP is leading in four seats while the NCP is leading in one. In Haryana, the BJP is leading in 3 seats while the INLD is leading in one.
8:00 am: The counting of votes for the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections has begun. Counting is taking place at 269 places; in Haryana, it is being carried out at 57 places.
The results will not only decide the winner in the two states but will also have far reaching implications for the political fortunes of several leaders some of whom stare at a bleak future after being convicted and jailed in corruption cases.
Both the 90-member Haryana Assembly and 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, the voting for which took place on October 15, are witnessing a close contest between all the main political parties. Apart from the regional politics these states witnessed in the past decades, there is this undeniable 'Modi factor' which too is facing the litmus test in the first Assembly polls after elections to the 16th Lok Sabha.
While in Haryana, the 'scam tainted' Congress is trying hard to retain power, opposition Indian National Lok Dal is making sure that it storms its way to Chandigarh after a decade of Hooda rule. The Chautalas are pulling out all their cards to come back to power. The court's orders to send back INLD chief OP Chautala to jail is likely to generate sympathy votes for the party. Amidst these traditional players of Haryana is the Bharatiya Janata Party which is looking to cash in on its Lok Sabha performance riding on Modi's popularity.
The political scene gets even hotter in Maharashtra where former allies are competing against each other to prove their mettle as individual players. The end of Shiv Sena-BJP and Congress-NCP ties has resulted in four-legged battle in Maharashtra. While the Congress and NCP are braving anti-incumbency factor, former allies Shiv Sena and BJP contesting alone can make a dent in their respective poll prospects. ####There are celebrations at the BJP headquarters with the party leading in Maharashtra and Haryana.
Comments
0 comment