The “overconfident” and “overenthusiastic” Bharatiya Janata Party, which had set a target of winning “75 plus” seats in 90-member Haryana Assembly, failed to even secure a clear majority as the poll results on Thursday yielded a hung House.
While most of the exit polls had predicted a comfortable victory for the saffron party, the actual poll results stood in stark contrast, and is seen possibly one of the most telling political embarrassments suffered by the BJP in the recent past.
As the electors in Jatland-Haryana voted for a hung assembly, the BJP failed to maintain its winning momentum in the state while its arch-rival-Congress, apparently produced a resilient comeback even after struggling due to factionalism and infighting in the party.
While both national parties ended short of securing a majority in the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the fledgling party-Jannayak Janta Party led by former Member Parliament Dushyant Chautala emerged as a key player in the poll results.
The BJP secured 40 seats, Congress won on 31, JJP managed to grab 10 seats, Indian National Lok Dal and Haryana Lokhit Party won one seat each and seven independents were elected to the House.
Even as the BJP has failed to emerge as a single largest party, the saffron party is set to form the Government for the second consecutive term in Haryana, the political observers say.
They say that the JJP with 10 seats in its kitty and seven independents will now play a key role in the formation of next government in Haryana.
The BJP and Congress have already reached out to the independents and the JJP, which came into existence after the split in Indian National Lok Dal last year.
The ballot battle in Haryana was multi-cornered this time with the BJP, the Congress, the Indian National Lok Dal-Shiromani Akali Dal alliance, Jannayak Janta Party, Aam Aadmi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Loktantra Suraksha Party and Swaraj India in the fray.
From 47 seats in 2014 State Assembly, the BJP was restricted to 40 seats this time. The Congress recorded increase in its previous election tally of 15 to 31 in the poll results declared on Thursday.
The INLD which had managed to win 19 seats in 2014 could register victory on only one seat. SAD, which had contested on two seats failed to open its account.
Former Minister Gopal Kanda’s Lokhit Haryana Party won one seat while sevenindependents won the polls.
Even as BJP’s vote share increased to 36.47 percent this time from 33.20 in 2014, the BJP failed to repeat its 2014 performance when it had won 47 seats on its own and went onto to form its maiden Government in Haryana.