Haryana Election Results: The picture of the Haryana Assembly election results 2024 is almost clear in which the trend of votes counting showed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to register a hat-trick victory in the farmers' dominant state, proving almost all exit polls wrong. Most of the exit polls predicted Congress' return to power in Haryana, ending a 10-year-long drought. However, the trend of counting took a dramatic turn when the ruling party suddenly bounced back and took an unassailable lead over Congress. When the counting started in the early morning on Tuesday, Congress started well and remailed ahead of the BJP for a few hours. At a time Congress was leading on the 71 seats but later reduced to 35. The latest data of the trends showed that the BJP was leading on 50 seats, crossing the majority (45 seats) mark.
Now, the question is what really hurt the grand old party which was seen in good shape in the state and on the ground Congress was apparently making waves in its favour. Even pollsters were highlighting anti-incumbency, citing the change of chief minister ahead of elections. The BJP sent then Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khatar to the Centre making him Union Minister and appointed state party chief Nayab Singh Saini.
Here are the five points that hurt Congress
- Infighting: As it always goes, infighting is a perennial issue with Congress in some states and Haryana is not exceptional. The infighting and groupism in were so evident in Haryana. There were two prominent camps led by former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and former union minister Kumar Selja - a Dalit face. Even days ahead of voting, there were disputes in the party on 'who will be their CM face?'. Selja on camera staked a claim for the CM post. Another Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala added fuel to the fire by claiming that he is also in the race for the chief minister post. In totality, Congress looks like a divided house which probably hurt most the grand old party's electoral fortune in Haryana.
- Jaat votes: Congress was confident that the Jaat vote bank would be shifted towards the grand old party over farmers' issue on minimum support price (MSP) and the revival of debate over scrapped farm laws during the election campaigns. But, seeing the results, it looks like Jaat votes were divided due to Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Dal (JJP)'s separation from the BJP.
- JJP's vote bank: It was expected that JJP, which was in power until months before the elections, would hurt BJP's electoral fortune but instead it lost its vote bank to the saffron party. JJP won 10 seats in the last election but this time it seems it would draw nill. JJP's all candidates were trailing. Congress failed to draw JJP voters, which subsequently helped the saffron party.
- Urban voters: Urban voters, who traditionally vote for the BJP, continued to support the Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP candidates are leading in the Urban assembly segments such as Gurugram, Faridabad and Sonipat which showed that the saffron party's dominance continued in these regions.
- Modi factor: BJP's critics were saying that the 'Modi factor' started fading post the Lok Sabha elections 2024 as the ruling party failed to secure a majority on its own. But, the Haryana election results speak volumes of the impact of the 'Modi factor'. The BJP carried out its campaigns around development works and flagship schemes of the Modi government, asserting the good impact of 'double engine ki sarkar' in Haryana.
