Assembly election results 2019:Haryana seems to be headed for hung assembly. 3 possible scenarios

In Haryana, after three rounds of counting, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was ahead in 38 assembly segments, the Congress in 30 and the new Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) in 11.

Updated on: Oct 24, 2019, 12:25:39 IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By Chetan Chauhan

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With a third of the votes counted, it looks like Haryana is headed for a hung assembly. This will be a sort of repeat of 2009, when then chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda failed to reach the majority mark of 45 in the 90-member House and had to seek support of the Bahujan Samaj Party to form the government.

Chandigarh, India July 02, 2019::Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar interact with HT at CM House in Chandigarh on Tuesday, July, 02, 2019.Photo by (Keshav Singh/HT FILE Photo)

After three rounds of counting, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was ahead in 38 assembly segments, the Congress in 30 and the new Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) in 11. In 2014, the BJP received 47 seats, the Congress, 15, and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) of Om Prakash Chautala 20. The Dushyant Chautala-led JJP split from the INLD earlier this year after a fierce family feud.

For full coverage of Haryana, Maharashtra assembly elections 2019, Click here.

In case the final results mirror these trends, there are three possible scenarios.

1. BJP forms government

If the BJP is short of the majority mark by a few seats, it can seek the support of the INLD, which is leading in two seats. If the difference is bigger, the BJP can also get some of the Congress lawmakers to defect (bringing down the overall number of seats in the assembly). The party may even try to strike a deal with the JJP. Much will depend on who its choice for chief minister is. Given the party’s poor performance, it is unlikely Manohar Lal Khattar will be the first choice.

2. Congress forms government

To do this, Bhupinder Singh Hooda will need the support of the JJP, the INLD and others to keep the BJP out. However, depending on the relative number of seats, Hooda’s claim for the CM’s post may weaken.

3. Dushayant Chautala as CM

Both the BJP and the Congress can offer the kingmaker Dushyant Chautala the post of the chief minister to keep the rival party out. This, though, could result in a Karnataka-like situation where the Janata Dal (S) with the fewest seats among itself, the BJP, and the Congress, formed a coalition government with the Congress -- only to implode earlier this year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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