The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears to be set to win with a bigger mandate this time in Maharashtra and Haryana, exit polls predicted. Both Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections were held on Monday.
Exit polls, that were broadcast soon after polling for the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly polls ended, varied widely in their projection of seats for the rival alliances but predicted a comfortable win for the BJP.
The exit polls predict nothing but a cakewalk for the BJP, which had brought the issue of abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and national security at the centre of its campaign, in both Maharashtra and Haryana. In Haryana, the BJP win was predicted to be even more dominant.
Now, let us look at the numbers.
MAHARASHTRA
The India Today-Axis-My-India exit poll projected the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance to win between 166 and 194 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly while the Congress-NCP alliance is predicted to win between 72 and 90 seats.
In 2014 state election, the BJP had won 122 and the Shiv Sena 63 seats. At that time, BJP and Sena fought elections separately with no alliance. Later, both the parties stitched an alliance post-election results and the joint tally stood at 185.
However, this time the BJP is set to win 109-124 seats on its own and Shiv Sena between 57 and 70, the exit poll predicted.
The NCP-Congress camp, on the other hand, is expected to win between 72 and 90 seats in the 2019 Maharashtra assembly election as predicted by India Today-Axis-My-India exit poll.
In 2014, Congress and NCP had won 42 and 41 seats by the Congress and the NCP. Both the parties contested separately then.
Meanwhile, the exit poll by News18-IPSOS gave the BJP a near-majority on its own by predicting a whopping 142 seats for the saffron party and 102 for its ally Shiv Sena. The Congress and the NCP would bag 17 and 22 seats respectively, it predicted.
The Times Now predicted 230 seats for the BJP-Shiv Sena cadre and 48 for the Congress-NCP. ]
The ABP-CVoter projected 210 seats for the BJP-Shiv Sena and 63 for the Congress-NCP.
HARYANA
The BJP is set to win with an even bigger mandate this time while the Congress’s electoral misery will continue in Haryana.
The ABP News-CVoter forecast 72 seats for the ruling BJP in the 90-member House, while the Congress is projected to win only eight seats in the 2019 Haryana assembly election.
The Times Now survey gave the BJP and the Congress 71 and 11 seats.
The CNN-IPSOS projected 75 and 10 seats for BJP and Congress respectively.
TV9-Bharatvarsh gave the BJP and Congress 47 and 23 seats.
In the 2014 Haryana assembly election, the BJP won 47 seats in the 90 member assembly, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) won 19 seats, the Congress won 15 seats while others won 9 seats.
The India Today-Axis My India exit poll will be releasing its predictions on the Haryana assembly election results today (Tuesday) evening.
