India assembly polls: Congress leads in BJP-ruled states

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India assembly polls: Congress leads in BJP-ruled states

Bhopal - High voter turnouts were recorded in the five states: Rajasthan, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.

By PTI/IANS

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Published: Tue 11 Dec 2018, 6:00 AM

Last updated: Tue 11 Dec 2018, 4:33 PM

The Congress on Tuesday appeared to be on the road to victory in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh and possibly Rajasthan and was locked in a close fight in Madhya Pradesh while the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) was headed for a landslide win in Telangana, dealing a blow to the Congress.
The Mizo National Front (MNF) looked set to unseat the Congress in Mizoram, the only state in the northeast the Congress was ruling.
As officials counted the millions of votes polled in Assembly elections in the five states whose outcome is considered significant ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, there was good news for the Congress in the Hindi heartland.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the media that he was confident of a Congress victory in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and that he had "always been a little more pessimistic" about Telangana.

BJP spokesperson G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said the results were expected to turn in his party's favour as more rounds of vote count get completed.

Chhattisgarh
The Congress was headed for a landslide in the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly, with its candidates leading over their rivals in 58 constituencies to the 24 seats of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has ruled Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh for 15 long years.
The alliance of the Janta Congress Chhattisgarh of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) were leading in seven seats.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh was leading but all his cabinet Ministers were trailing, officials said.

Rajasthan
In Rajasthan, the Congress was ahead in 100 of the 199 seats and the BJP in 77. But Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said she was still confident of retaining power.
Madhya Pradesh

And in line with exit polls, the Congress had surged past the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, its nominees ahead in 115 of the 230 constituencies. The BJP was ahead in 104 seats. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan seemed to be on the winning track.
Telangana
The Congress-led alliance in Telangana suffered a major blow as officials counting the votes predicted that the ruling TRS was poised to get a second five-year term with a landslide. TRS nominees had taken solid leads in 95 of the 119 constituencies, crushing the opposition.
Noisy celebrations erupted outside Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao's residence and the TRS office in Hyderabad and in other towns in the state.

Mizoram
In Mizoram, the Mizo National Front (MNF) was leading in 25 of the 40 seats, a clear indication that the Congress was set to lose power after a decade. Congress candidates were leading in seven seats.

Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla was trailing in both the constituencies he contested.
Latest updates:
Congress suspects EVM manipulation in Telangana

With the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) headed for a landslide victory in the state's Assembly elections, the Congress on Tuesday voiced the suspicion that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) were manipulated.

State Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded that 100 per cent counting of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) be taken up.  He asked all Congress candidates to submit letters to returning officers concerned for counting of paper trails.

Congress ahead in 91 seats, BJP in 71

Official ECI trends: Congress is leading in 91 seats while BJP is ahead in 71 seats and others are leading in 22 seats.

 
TRS heading for landslide victory
Beating all expectations of pre-poll surveys and exit polls, the TRS appeared set to win 90 seats in the 119-member Assembly. The gamble for early polls appeared to have paid rich dividends for the regional party in the first full-fledged elections in India's youngest state. The ruling party candidates were ahead of their rivals in 90 constituencies while the other major contender for power, the Congress-led People's Front, was leading in just 18 places.
 
TRS chief and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao was leading in Gajwel constituency while his son K. T. Rama Rao and nephew Harish Rao were ahead of their rivals in Sircilla and Siddipet constituencies.
Many top leaders of Congress were trailing. The TDP was ahead in just two segments while Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and Communist Party of India (CPI) were not leading in any of the constituencies they contested.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) was leading in five segments and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in three.
KCR's daughter K. Kavitha said there was never doubt that the party would retain power with a huge majority.  Kavitha, a member of the Lok Sabha, said there was no anti-incumbency as the TRS government had done well on all fronts during the last four-and-a-half years. As many as 73.20 per cent of 2.80 crore electorate voted in the elections held in all 119 constituencies on Friday.  The TRS won 63 seats in 2014 while Congress had finished with 21. KCR dissolved the Assembly in September, eight months before its term was to end.
As the early trends show BJP trailing in Rajasthan, the party's office in Jaipur is bereft of any movement.
 
Official ECI trends: Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje is leading by 8845 votes from Jhalrapatan, Congress' Ashok Gehlot is leading by 5112 votes from Sardarpura, Congress' Sachin Pilot is leading by 5295 votes from Tonk.
 
TRS appears set for two-third majority in Telangana
The TRS took early leads in a majority of the constituencies for which trends were available as officials counted the hundreds of thousands of votes.
The ruling party candidates were ahead of their rivals in 82 constituencies while the other major contender for power, the Congress-led People's Front, was leading in just 17 places.
Many top leaders of Congress were trailing in their constituencies while TDP, Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and Communist Party of India (CPI) were not leading in any of the constituencies they contested.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) was leading in three segments and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in four.
TRS President and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao's daughter K. Kavitha said there was no doubt that the party would retain power with a huge majority.
Official ECI trends: Congress leading in 13 seats, BJP ahead in 4 seats

Congress is leading on 13 seats, BJP is ahead in 4 seats, Janata Congress leading in 1 seat in Chhattisgarh.
 
 
 
We have a favourable situation in Rajasthan, says Digvijay Singh
Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh expressed confidence in Congress' win in the 2018 Assembly elections.
 
Congress may be heading for landslide win in Chhattisgarh
The Congress appeared to be heading for a landslide victory on Tuesday in Chhattisgarh, dealing a major blow to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Election Commission officials said.
After the first round of voting, Congress candidates were ahead of their rivals in 61 of the 90 seats in the battle for an Assembly where the half-way mark is 46.??BJP candidates were ahead in 21 constituencies. While Chief Minister Raman Singh managed to reverse the trend after initially trailing to the Congress, all his cabinet Ministers were way behind their rivals.
Sensex drops 500 points, Nifty below 10,400 mark
The S&P BSE Sensex slid around 500 points on Tuesday morning after the Congress party started to take the lead in the Assembly elections in three key states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Accordingly, at 9.35am, the Sensex traded at 34,459.72 points, lower by 500 points or 1.43 per cent from the previous close. The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange traded at 10,344.40 points, lower by 144.05 points or 1.37 per cent from the previous close.
Initially, the key stock exchanges had a gap-down opening as investors were spooked on the surprise resignation of RBI Governor Urjit Patel on Monday evening.
Congress starts early celebrations
Congress workers in Rajasthan have already begun celebrations at the party office. Party workers have gathered at the headquarters in the state with boxes of fireworks. Rajasthan party chief Sachin Pilot is leading in Tonk.
 
 
 
Congress leads in Rajasthan, trails in Telangana, stiff fight in MP
The Congress took early significant leads in BJP-ruled Rajasthan and was locked in a close fight in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as officials counted the millions of votes polled in Assembly elections in five states.

Election Commission officials also said on the basis of preliminary trends that the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) was way ahead of the Congress in Telangana in the five-state elections seen as a trendsetter ahead of the Lok Sabha polls next year.

Congress and BJP candidates were leading in 18 constituencies each in Madhya Pradesh, which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has ruled for the past 15 years. In neighbouring Chhattisgarh, the two parties were forging ahead in nine seats each.

Congress candidates were ahead of their rivals in 34 constituencies in Rajasthan, a state which has never re-elected a ruling party in recent times, leaving the BJP on the possible winning track in 25.

The TRS made significant gains, leading in 28 seats, leaving the Congress way behind in 15 constituencies.
Tight security in place at counting centre
In the multi-phase polling, Chhattisgarh voted on November 12 (18 seats) and November 20 (72 seats); Madhya Pradesh (230 seats) and Mizoram (40 seats) on November 28; and Rajasthan (199 seats) and Telangana (119 seats) on December 7.
Over 8,500 candidates were in the fray in polls for these assemblies.
A total of 678 assembly seats across five states went for polls, after polling was countermanded in one seat in Rajasthan due to death of a candidate.
Tight security arrangements have been made for the counting, especially in Chhattisgarh where at least 12 assembly seats are in Naxal-affected areas. Besides, there have been allegations related to the electronic voting machines.
 
Hectic political parleys marked the eve of counting of votes for five state assemblies, billed as semi-finals before the 2019 national polls, with the Congress asserting that the mandate from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram on Tuesday would send a "clear message" against the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
Rejecting the exit-poll results, most of which have forecast gains for Congress in at least four states including a clear majority in Rajasthan, the BJP leaders said the final results should be awaited even as they sought to de-link the state polls from the next year's Lok Sabha elections.
 
In Telangana, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi met interim chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao to extend his support and said he was sure about the ruling TRS coming back to power, while the BJP also hinted at its possible support.
The Congress-led alliance, however, appeared upbeat that it would get the mandate to dislodge KCR, as the chief minister is popularly known as, and form the next government. It also told Governor ESL Narasimhan that it should be treated as a single entity in the event of no party getting a clear majority.
For Madhya Pradesh, senior Congress leader Kamal Nath exuded confidence that his party would get at least 140 seats to form a majority government.
For Telangana, exit polls have been divided between the TRS and the Congress-led opposition alliance. Same is the case for Mizoram where the ruling Congress is being challenged by its arch-rival in the state, Mizo National Front, while the BJP is also separately in fray.
Ahead of the results, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said people will give a "clear message" in form of results for the five assemblies and exuded confidence that the BJP would be ousted in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
These assembly elections are being seen as crucial for the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections as it is in power in three of these states - Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The Congress is in power in Mizoram, while the TRS ruled Telangana before the assembly was dissolved there.
The BJP is trying for a fourth term in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and is seeking to retain power in Rajasthan. The three states also played a significant role for the BJP in the 2014 general elections, when it had won 62 out of the 65 Lok Sabha seats in these three states.
The elections are also significant for Congress, which is out to challenge the BJP's rule in three states and protect its last bastion in the North-East, where Mizoram remains the only state not under the rule of BJP-led NDA. The eight North-East states together have 25 Lok Sabha seats.

In the 2013 elections in Mizoram, the Congress had won 34 seats, while MNF got five and the Mizoram People's Conference bagged one seat. Since 1987, Mizoram has been ruled by either Congress or the MNF, while the BJP is yet to win an assembly seat there.
In Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the BJP has been in power for three consecutive terms, while Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government Rajasthan is seeking to defy a recent trend of the saffron party and the Congress being in power alternately.
KCR-led Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had formed the first government of the country's youngest state in 2014 after it was carved out of Andhra Pradesh.

In the maiden polls for the 119-seat Telangana assembly, 1,821 candidates were in fray and a voter turnout of 73.20 per cent was recorded.
Chhattisgarh recorded 76.60 per cent voter turnout, while the same for Madhya Pradesh was 75.05 per cent. Rajasthan recorded over 74 per cent voting, while it was nearly 80 per cent in Mizoram.


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