E-Paper
Congress leads in Haryana
The early trends from Haryana reflect a slight edge by the Congress over the Indian National Lok Dal.
BJP, which had won five seats in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, was heading for a total rout in Haryana as per the trends for all the 10 seats available till 1100 am with the Congress was heading for major gains in leading in eight constituencies and Haryana Vikas Party and ruling INLD leading in one each.
Union Minister ID Swami (BJP) was trailing behind Arvind Sharma of the Congress at Karnal.
Congress, which had failed to win any seats in 1999 Lok Sabha elections, was leading in nine constituencies Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Rohtak, Faridabad, Mahendargarh, Hissar and Sirsa.
INLD's Krishna Malik, wife of state DGP MS Malik who was sent on leave by the Election Commission, was leading in Sonipat while Surender Singh, a son of former Chief Minister Bansi Lal was leading in Bhiwani.
In the 1999 elections INLD and BJP, which contested as allies, had shared the 10 seats winning five each.
The Congress nominees in the lead were Selja (Ambala), industrialist Navin Jindal (Kurukshetra), Arvind Sharma (Karnal), leader of opposition in state assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Rohtak), Avtar Singh Bhadana (Faridabad), party MLA Rao Inderjit Singh (Mahendargarh), former Union Deputy Minister Jai Parkash (Hissar) and Atma Singh Gill (Sirsa).
