Wooed by both the BJP and the Congress after the success of the fledgling Jannayak Janta Party, Dushyant Chautala will hold meetings with his 10 MLAs today to decide the future course of action.
In a clear snub to exit polls, Haryana on Thursday threw up a hung assembly, with the ruling BJP emerging as the single largest party with 40 seats, six short of the halfway mark needed to form the next government. The Congress put up a resurgent performance, winning 31 seats in the 90 – member Haryana Legislative Assembly. Debutant Jannayak Janta Party emerged as the potential kingmaker with 10 seats. The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) won a seat each, with Independent candidates winning seven. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which contested 46 seats, was decimated and ended up with zero seats.
Dismissing speculations, Chautala had said yesterday that the party would decide who they would support, while putting forth the condition that he would ally with the party that offered him the chief minister’s post.
So far as Maharashtra is concerned, the Shiv Sena continues to make the going tough for the BJP. Maharashtra looked set to have a BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government for another five years, even as results of the Assembly polls threw up what a former CM called an “interesting possibility” of the Sena, NCP and Congress aligning to upset the BJP’s applecart.
The BJP ended with a tally of 105 in the 288 -member Assembly. The Sena won on 56 seats, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on 54, while the Congress won 44 seats.
Former CM Prithviraj Chavan said the results have thrown up an “interesting possibility”, but stopped short of indicating if the Congress and NCP will align with the Sena – which he termed as the ‘lesser evil’ (compared to BJP) – to form the next government in Maharashtra.
In terms of the increase in number of seats compared to the 2014 polls, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP emerged as the largest gainer, while the BJP’s tally took a considerable dip.
This, however, did not dampen the enthusiam of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who announced that the BJP-Sena combine will rule the state for another term.
Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, looking elated after the triumphant maiden electoral foray of his son Aaditya, reminded the BJP of promises not fulfilled.
Asked by reporters which party will get the chief minister’s post, Thackeray said, “It is time to remind the BJP about the formula arrived at when BJP chief Amit Shah visited my home …. we had decided on a fifty-fifty formula for the alliance. “
“We agreed to contest fewer seats (than the BJP), but I cannot accommodate the BJP every time. I should allow my party to grow,” Thackeray said. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said despite the BJP ending up winning fewer seats in 2019 compared to the 2014 Assembly polls, its “strike rate” is better this time.
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