Celebrations began at the Congress headquarters even before the counting of votes started.
Defying exit poll predictions and brushing off anti-incumbency, the BJP has pulled off a hat-trick in Haryana, becoming the first party to win thrice in a row in the state.
An aggregate of seven exit polls predicted that the Congress would win 55 seats, 10 more than the halfway mark of 45, and the party was on course to do just that or better even two hours after counting began at 8 am, but things changed very quickly - in the BJP's favour - after that.
As of 7.24 pm, the BJP had won in 48 constituencies - its strongest-ever performance in the state - and the Congress had emerged victorious in 36. The result of one seat in which the Congress was leading was still awaited.
While celebrations began outside the Congress headquarters in New Delhi even before the counting started, with party supporters dancing as dhols were being played, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini expressed confidence that the BJP would form the government in Haryana for the third straight time.
"We have done a lot of development work in the past 10 years. The kind of system set up by former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will continue to bring benefits for Haryana for a long time. It is our responsibility to take this good work forward," Mr Saini, who took over as the chief minister from Mr Khattar in March, told reporters this morning.
After leads pointed to the BJP forming a government in the state again, Congress supporters stopped celebrating while sweets started being distributed at the saffron party's offices.
Senior BJP leaders also gathered at Mr Khattar's residence in New Delhi to discuss government formation. The attendees included the party's Haryana elections in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan and co-in-charge Biplab Kumar Deb.
Manipulation Charge
The Congress wrote a letter to the Election Commission, complaining of an "unexplained slowdown" in updating results for the Haryana election.
"As you can imagine, this allows bad-faith actors to spin narratives that undermine the process. You can see examples of it already playing out on social media. Our fear is also that such narratives can then be used by these mala fide actors to influence processes where counting is still underway i.e. in most of the counting centres," senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote in the letter.
The Election Commission dismissed the charges and said approximately 25 rounds across all constituencies were being updated every five minutes.
In its response, the poll body also said it "unequivocally rejects your (Mr Ramesh's) attempt to surreptitiously give credence to irresponsible, unfounded and uncorroborated malafide narratives".
In the evening, the Congress raised doubts about EVMs being manipulated and said it would approach the Election Commission with a list of complaints, insisting that it would not accept the Haryana results.
2019 Result
In the last Assembly elections in Haryana in 2019, the BJP had won 40 seats, the Congress 31 and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) 10. The BJP formed the government with the support of the JJP and Dushyant Chautala became the deputy chief minister. The post-poll alliance ended when Mr Saini became the chief minister.
The BJP won only five of the state's 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana after sweeping all of them in 2019 and the Assembly elections in the state as well as Jammu and Kashmir were seen as an opportunity for the party to prove that it remains popular with voters after failing - for the first time in 10 years - to achieve a majority on its own in the general elections.
For the Congress, the stakes were arguably even higher because the party had been nearly written off after its massive defeats in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Congress leaders have been citing the party's haul of 99 seats in this year's general elections and the performance of the INDIA alliance to talk of a resurgence, and the results in both Haryana and J&K were being seen as a test of that theory.
