Senior Congress leader and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said on Thursday he was confident that his party will win a majority in the state as counting of votes was underway.
“Congress ka bahumat aayega (The Congress will get a majority),” Bhupinder Singh Hooda said while speaking to reporters in Rohtak.
Hooda was visiting a counting centre in Rohtak town.
Voting for the 90-member Haryana assembly took place on October 21 in the first electoral test for the BJP since the April-May general elections. Most exit polls predicted that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would perform better in the state than it did in 2014.
Most exit polls said the BJP will get anywhere between 55 and 75 seats, with the Congress securing 15-20. The only exception was the India Today-Axis exit poll that predicted a close fight between the BJP and the Congress in Haryana and that it could have a hung assembly.
The survey by India Today-Axis My India also suggested that the Dushyant Chautala-led JJP, a breakaway faction of the once prominent Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), may win 6-10 seats and could play a crucial role in the government formation.
The BJP got 46 seats in the 90 member house and the opposition Congress 15 and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) 20 seats in 2014. Many of the INLD legislators joined the BJP before elections and some were fielded by the JJP.
Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who has been the chief minister twice and a parliamentarian four times, is contesting the Haryana assembly election 2019 against the BJP’s Satish Nandal from his home constituency of Garhi Sampla-Kiloi.
Hooda defeated Nandal, a former INLD leader, in 2009 and 2014 from the constituency, which came into being 10 years ago after a delimitation exercise.
A rural seat in Rohtak district, Garhi Sampla-Kiloi has a dominant Jat vote bank, with over two lakh voters. Thirteen candidates also contested from this seat.
