As counting of votes continues to take place for 90 Assembly seats in Haryana, early leads from the Election Commission (EC) indicate that the BJP is all set to form a government in the state for the third consecutive term.
Even though most exit polls predicted a comfortable victory for Congress and a setback for the BJP, EC leads indicate that the BJP is set to cross the majority mark of 45. Meanwhile, the Congress is set to get over 30 seats.
However, in terms of vote share, the Congress has registered a bump of nearly 12 percent from 28.2 percent in 2019. The BJP pulled marginally higher votes—from 36.7 percent in 2019 to 39.6 percent in 2024.
If we focus on areas which fall under the National Capital Region (NCR) surrounding Delhi—in Faridabad and Gurugram districts—they have largely been retained by the BJP, as per EC’s leads.
BJP Retains 3 Seats, Wrests 1 in Gurgaon Distt.
Gurgaon district comprises of four Assembly constituencies—Gurgaon, Badshahpur, Sohna and Pataudi, which is reserved for a candidate belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC) category. This time:
In Gurgaon: BJP’s Mukesh Sharma is leading with a margin of nearly 30,000 votes. Naveen Goyal, who contested the elections as an Independent candidate after the BJP denied him a ticket, is in second place, while Congress candidate Mohit Grover is in third place.
In Badshahpur: BJP’s Rao Narbir Singh is leading with a margin of over 30,000 votes. Congress candidate Vardhan Yadav is in second place.
In Sohna: BJP’s Tejpal Tanwar is leading over Congress’ Rohtas Singh by over 7,000 votes.
In Pataudi: BJP’s Bimla Chaudhary is leading over Congress candidate Pearl Chaudhary by over 22,000 votes.
Of the four Assembly seats, the maximum voter turnout was registered in Sohna, at 68.6 percent, while Gurgaon had the least with 51.2% of the total 4.4 lakh voters coming out to cast their ballot during the 2024 Assembly elections.
Gurgaon district is part of the Ahirwal belt, which is dominated by the Yadav community. The belt is stretched across southern Haryana, including Mahendergarh, Narnaul, Nangal Chaudhary, Bawal, Kosli, Rewari and even parts of Rajasthan.
The BJP has held the four seats since 2014, before which they were won by the Congress and Om Prakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).
BJP Retains 4 Seats, Wrest 1 in Faridabad
Faridabad district, which consists of six Assembly constituencies—Prithla, Faridabad NT, Badkhal, Ballabgarh, Faridabad, and Tigaon—has been swept by the BJP this time.
In Prithala: Congress candidate Raghubir Tewatia is leading over BJP’s Tek Chand Sharma by over 20,000 votes. The seat has never been won by the BJP. Sharma had won from the seat in 2014 on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket.
In Faridabad NIT: BJP’s Satish Kumar Phagna is leading over Congress candidate Neeraj Sharma by over 17,000 votes
In Badkhal: BJP candidate Dhanesh Adlakha is leading with a margin of nearly 5,000 votes over Congress candidate Vijay Pratap Singh.
In Ballabgarh: BJP Candidate Mool Chand Sharma is leading with a margin of 13,000 votes over Independent candidate Sharda Rathore. Congress candidate Parag Sharma polled around 6,000 votes.
In Faridabad: BJP’s Vipul Goel is leading over Congress candidate Lakhan Kumar Singla with a margin of 38,000 votes.
In Tigaon: BJP’s Rajesh Nagar is leading over Lalit Nagar—a Congress rebel contesting as an Independent candidate—by over 32,000 votes.
Faridabad district, which has largely been dominated by the BJP for the last five years, also suffers from civic issues including poor condition of roads, absence of metro connectivity, erratic power supply, dirty water, poor drainage and garbage disposal. The district has a sizable Gujjar population and the community has traditionally supported the BJP.
Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini visited the district once on 24 September while Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath campaigned in the Faridabad NIT seat the next day.
Faridabad saw a voter turnout of 53.74 percent, lower than the total voter turnout of 67.9 percent in Haryana. Among the seats, Prithala saw the maximum voter turnout of 76.25 percent, as per the Election Commission.
The BJP's consolidation of non-Jat votes seems to have worked in the party's favour. Besides, the upper caste, urban voters seem to have also supported the BJP in both Gurgaon and Faridabad.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)