Congress ahead, say Exit polls as three states vote

The ruling Congress and its allies have an edge in two of the three states that polled to elect their respective assemblies on Tuesday, said Exit polls and projections. No forecast was available for the third, Arunachal Pradesh. Full coveragePodcast:Polling in M'rashtra | Arunachal

The ruling Congress and its allies have an edge in two of the three states that polled to elect their respective assemblies on Tuesday, said Exit polls and projections. No forecast was available for the third, Arunachal Pradesh.

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Maharashtra and Haryana were the other two states. All three states — all ruled by the Congress currently — recorded high rate of polling with Arunachal topping at 72 per cent. Haryana 66 and Maharashtra 60.

Mumbai polled 45 per cent.

The Election Commission described the voting “satisfactory”. “The polling in naxal-affected districts (of Maharashtra) was higher than the state average,” said Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla.

The votes will be counted on October 22.

But the mood in the Congress was upbeat as polling closed. Two exit polls – by news channel Star New and pollster Cvoter-- have said the party was headed for a comfortable majority in the 90-seat Haryana assembly.

In Maharashtra, the exit polls said the Congress and its ally the Nationalist Congress Party were likely to return as the single largest combination, but just a bit short of a simple majority of 145 in a 288-seat House.

The CNN-IBN projected a range that at the least showed the Congress-NCP would be the single largest entity.

No forecast was available for the 60-seat Arunachal. But the Congress looked comfortable with three of its MLAs already declared elected unopposed.