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NEW DELHI: While the BJP-Shiv Sena combine was comfortably placed to retain power in Maharashtra on Thursday, the Haryana Assembly poll verdict threw up a hung House, with no party reaching the majority figures.
In Haryana, the ruling BJP emerged as the single largest party by winning 33 seats and leading at 7 others but fell short of the halfway mark by 5 seats.
The Congress, on the other hand, showed significant progress from its performance in the last Assembly elections by winning 29 seats and leading in 2. It had got 15 in the 2014 Assembly polls.
The nearly year-old Jannayak Janata Dal (JJP) was victorious in 10 constituencies, making it a possible kingmaker, along with 7 Independents.
INLD, which ruled the State for four times, was leading merely at 1 seat.
The outcome of the Assembly polls held on October 21 is a setback for the BJP, which had won 47 seats in the last state elections in 2014 and had been expressing confidence about raising its tally beyond 75 seats this time, using the nationalist pitch of abolition of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and Balakot air strike.
The results came as a shocker for the saffron party, particularly since it had won all the 10 seats in the Lok Sabha elections held just five months back. The Congress had failed to open account in the April-May Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP got 36.5 per cent votes while the Congress bagged 28.1 per cent votes.
The BJP had formed the government in Haryana for the first time in 2014, when it improved its tally from 4 in the previous elections.
The INLD, which ruled the state the last time from 2000 to 2004, stood second with 19 seats in the last Assembly elections and was the main Opposition party in the outgoing House.
JJP was formed in December last year after Dushyant Chautala, grandson of 4-time Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, split from INLD following a bitter fight in the family.
The Congress has already begun efforts to woo JJP leader Dushyant Chautala but he has refused to spell out his future course of action, saying it will be decided after the party's meeting on Friday.
Meanwhile, in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena achieved a majority winning 150 seats of the 260 results declared by the Election Commission till 9 p.m. on Thursday.
The BJP had won 95 seats and was leading in another 10, while ally Shiv Sena bagged 55 seats and notched a lead in another one constituency.
Together, the two pre-poll allies have touched 150 seats - or, crossed the half-way mark of 144 in the 288-member legislative assembly - and appeared set to bag power for a second consecutive term, barring unforeseen political developments.
The Opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) also put up a handsome show by winning 49 seats and leading in five more, while ally Congress won 35 and was ahead in the vote count in nine more seats.
Among the smaller parties and independents, the Bahujan Vikash Aghadi had won two and was leading in one seat, and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Prahar Janshakti Party and Samajwadi Party have emerged victorious in two seats each.
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, the Swabhimani Shetkari Party, the CPI-M, the Rashtriya Samaj Party, the Jan Surajya Party and the Krantikari Shetkari Party have bagged one seat each.
Among the independents, 12 were declared victorious and one was in a strong lead position in the state.
Maharashtra voted for a new 288-member Assembly on October 21, and the remaining final results of another two-dozen seats are expected by midnight, according to the EC officials. (IANS)