The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday clinched a stunning hat-trick win in Haryana overcoming anti-incumbency and dashing Congress' hopes of a comeback while the National Conference-Congress combine pulled off a spectacular victory in maiden elections in Jammu and Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
The BJP's decisive victory in the Haryana assembly elections for which Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini gave credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi came as a big boost for the saffron party ahead of the crucial polls in Maharashtra, where along with its two allies it is bracing for a tough battle, and also in Jharkhand and Delhi.
The BJP as well as the NC-Congress alliance got a comfortable majority in Haryana and J-K respectively where the assemblies had an identical strength of 90.
While Saini, the 54-year-old OBC leader who was made CM just six months ago to replace Manohar Lal Khattar in an unexpected appointment, is likely to retain his post, NC president Farooq Abdullah announced that his son and party leader Omar Abdullah will be the chief minister, a post he had held between 2009 and 2014.
In a series of posts, Prime Minister Modi hailed BJP's performance in Haryana as a 'grand victory', saying politics of development and good governance has won.
He also complimented the NC for its 'commendable' showing in J and K, and said he was proud of BJP's showing in the union territory.
Modi later addressed BJP workers at the party headquarters in Delhi and said people of Haryana have stamped out falsehood and that polls in J and K were a victory for India's Constitution and democracy.
He wished NC on its win and noted that the BJP was the largest party in terms of vote share.
As the poll results bucked exit poll projections for both Haryana and J-K, the first major direct contest between the BJP and the Congress after the Lok Sabha verdict in June saw the ruling party emerge triumphant with its largest tally of 48 seats, up from 41 in 2019.
The BJP also overcame the setback in the Lok Sabha polls when its tally dropped from 10 in 2019 to five seats.
"I give full credit to Modi ji. With his blessings, under his guidance, people of Haryana have put a stamp on the government's policies," Saini told reporters.
Despite the good showing of the BJP in Haryana, eight out of 10 ministers were defeated as per the Election Commission data.
Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta also lost.
The BJP hailed its victory in Haryana as 'historic' and also accepted the people's mandate in J and K.
As the vote count in Haryana witnessed some close contests, the faction-ridden Congress, which was hoping to consolidate its gains from the Lok Sabha verdict by targeting the incumbent government on farmers' plight and Agnipath recruitment scheme for non-commissioned posts in the Armed Forces, notched 36 seats, five more than it got last time. It was also leading in one.
Significantly, the vote share of the BJP and Congress was almost same--39.94 per cent and 39.04 per cent respectively. While the Congress increased its vote share by a massive 11 per cent , the BJP's vote share rose by three per cent.
Among the Congress' high profile winners was Vinesh Phogat, the wrestler-turned-politician who broke a million hearts when she lost out on her Olympic medals. She won the Julana seat by 6,015 votes. However, hers was also a seesaw battle for much of the day.
The Congress loss in Haryana triggered a blame game with senior party leader Kumari Selja saying the party high command should assess all reasons that led to the disappointing result and identify the people responsible.
The knives were out in the party even before the declaration of final results, as Selja, who had been sulking during the election which was effectively led by former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, said "it will not be business as usual" and called for introspection.
"It will not be business as usual in Haryana and I am sure the Congress high command would identify those who negated the efforts to bring the party to power after 10 years," she told reporters.
Jannayak Janta Party, which had emerged as the kingmaker last assembly polls, was decimated this time round, while the Indian National Lok Dal also failed to create much impact, with prominent leaders of both outfits Dushyant Chautala and Abhay Singh Chautala losing their seats.
The Aam Aadmi Party also came as a cropper.
The alliance of the NC and Congress, who are constituents of the opposition grouping INDIA bloc and are set to form the government in J and K, won 48 of the 90 seats at stake.
The NC, which scored big in the elections being held for the first time since 2019 when J an K was also bifurcated into union territories, bagged 42 of the 51 seats it contested while its junior partner' Congress got six of the 32 it fought.
Omar Abdullah told PTI videos that he expects Prime Minister Modi to do the 'honourable thing' by restoring the statehood to J and K.
The BJP with 29 seats emerged as the second largest party improving its all-time high tally of 25 in 2014 elections. It had fielded 62 candidates with a major focus on its strong bastion of Jammu region.
But J-K BJP chief Ravinder Raina, known as the party's 'poster boy' in the region, failed to retain his Nowshera assembly seat.
Independents bagged seven seats and the People's Democratic Party got three. Among those who lost was PDP's Iltija Mufti, daughter of party president Mehbooba Mufti.
The AAP made its debut to the assembly. Its supremo Arvind Kejriwal congratulated the party for opening its account in a fifth state.
Mehraj Malik, a District Development Council (DDC) member, polled 23,228 votes against BJP's Gajay Singh Rana's 18,690 votes in Doda.
Separatist candidates, including those from Engineer Rashid-led Awami Ittehad Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, failed to make any impact in the polls.
After early morning trends showed the Congress taking leads in Haryana triggering celebrations at party offices in Delhi and Chandigarh, it was finally over confidence, factionalism and over-dependence on one community--Jats--that appeared to have finally cost the party dearly.
The BJP powered its campaign on good governance, transparent administration, equitable development, jobs on merit, welfare initiatives for all sections including farmers, poor and the weak.
It also successfully turned the tables on the Congress by projecting the polls as a contest between 'kharchi-parchi' (corruption and favouritism in government jobs) during Hooda's rule between 2004-14 and its 'lean' administration since 2014.
The Congress also raised with the Election Commission the issue of an 'unexplained slowdown' in updating of results in Haryana and urged it to direct officials to update accurate figures so "false news and malicious narratives" can be countered immediately.
But the EC told Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who had written to the poll panel, that there was nothing on record to substantiate his 'ill-founded allegation' of a slowdown.
The EC also dubbed his allegations as an attempt to 'surreptitiously give credence to irresponsible, unfounded and uncorroborated mala fide narratives'.
In J and K, the day belonged to Omar Abdullah, who won from both Budgam and Ganderbal in the Valley he contested. He had lost his parliamentary election this year.
He told reporters that efforts had been underway to finish his party.
"But those who wanted to finish us have been wiped out. Our responsibilities have increased." —PTI