Huffing and Puffing, the Bharatiya Janata Party finally retains Maharastra and Haryana into its saffron moment with all the tough fight given by the Indian National Congress. In Maharastra, BJP and Shiv Sena alliance got victorious with the majority seats. Meanwhile, in the Haryana assembly elections, BJP failed to reach the majority line. Both BJP and Congress had a neck to neck fight. And, in the end, it was BJP who got the most number of seats. However, Kattar lead BJP is looking confidence to form a government again in Haryana after they receive support from independent MLAs.
BJP retains Haryana and Maharastra after a tough battle
In the Haryana assembly election which was fought for 90 seats, BJP lead by Manohar Lal Khattar bagged 40 seats, meanwhile, Congress ended up having just 31 votes. The newly formed party, the Jannayak Janata Party also made an outstanding debut as they manage to win 10 seats in the election. Felling short for 6 seats, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar met BJP Working President JP Nadda and BJP National General Secretary (Org) BL Santhosh at the former’s residence to discuss the further arrangments. The eight MLAs, who had won from their respective constituencies, were also reportedly present in the meeting.
Among the independent MLAs, Gopal Kanda, the chief of the Haryana Lokhit Party, flew to Delhi for a meeting with the BJP leadership. Thursday evening, all independent candidates have extended their support to the BJP. Amongst them, Ranjit Singh, who happens to be a Congress rebel has won from the Rania seat as an Independent candidate. He has said that he will support the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Another Independent candidate, Nayan Pal Rawat, who won from Prithala assembly constituency has also extended his support to the saffron party.
Manohar Lal Khattar is now expected to meet Governor Satyadev Narayan Arya to stake claim to form the government in the state for the second consecutive term.
Maharastra alliance party
Shifting to Maharastra assembly elections for 288 seats, the Bjp-Sena alliance was victorious with 157 seats where the BJP lead by Devendra Fadnavis got 105 seats and Sena got 56. The combined tally was less than the 2014 assembly results. Previously, BJP single-handedly bagged 122 seats and Sena had 63 seats.
However, the results show the BJP will form the government in Maharashtra, but not without settling 50-50 demand from Shiv Sena. It will be interesting to see if Sena settles for deputy chief ministership for Aaditya Thackeray or demands for the chief minister’s post.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave clear indications that the BJP will continue with Devendra Fadnavis and Manohar Lal Khattar as the chief minister of Maharastra and Haryana, respectively. He praised both the leaders for their governance record in the past five years and for getting a second consecutive term in states where retaining power is not that easy.
