Cong retains Maharashtra, Haryana; sweeps Arunachal

The Congress
appeared headed for forming governments in Maharashtra and Haryana, retaining power with slightly reduced numbers, while
it was poised for a clean sweep in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Congress, along with its ally NCP, was poised to retain power in Maharashtra as it was leading in 134 constituencies having already bagged about 14 seats in the 288-member Assembly.

In the 288-member Maharasthra Assembly, Congress-NCP combine is leading in 137 seats as against Shiv Sena-BJP coalition which is ahead in 100 seats. The Raj Thackeray-led MNS is leading in 15 constituencies.

HARYANA

Congress was set to retain power in Haryana having won sevenseats results of which were declared while the ruling party was leading in 30 of the 67 constituencies the trends of which were available following the counting of votes for the 90 member state assembly. The INLD has , so far, won three seats and Independents/Others have won one seat.

Congress' Savitri Jindal, mother of noted industrialist and Lok Sabha MP Navin Jindal, retained the Hisar assembly seat by a margin of 14,728 votes. She defeated her nearest rival Gautam Sardana,(Independent).
Venod Sharma (Congress) retained the Ambala City seat with a margin of 35,550 votes by trouncing his nearest rival Charanjeet Kaur of Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal). Congress’ Kuldeep Sharma also won the Ganaur seat.

Of the 67 seats for which trends were available Congress, which needs 45 seats to retain power, was leading in 30 seats and Om Parkash Chautala led INLD, which faired badly in the recent Lok Sabha elections, was leading in 18 constituencies.

Chautala had a narrow lead of around 1200 votes from Uchana Kalan over Finance Minister Birendra Singh. The INLD chief, however, was trailing at Ellenabad behind Bharat Singh Beniwal (Congress).

Chautala's son Ajay was trailing behind his cousin K V Singh from Dabwali constituency while his younger brother Ranjit Singh contesting as a Congress nominee was trailing behind Krishan Lal (INLD) from Rania.
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was leading over Satish Kumar (INLD) from Garhi Sampla-Kiloi in Rohtak district. Power Minister Randeep Surjewala was leading over Kailash Bhagat (INLD) from Kaithal.

Cricketer Yuvraj Singh's father Yograj (INLD) was trailing behind D K Bansal (Congress) from Panchkula while HJC-BL President Kuldeep Bishnoi was ahead over Krishan Gopal Tyagi (INLD) from Adampur.