The BJP on Tuesday won the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections after the party bagged 48 of the total 90 seats in the state. This was BJP’s third consecutive victory in Haryana. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated the party and has said that the people of the state have created history.
This shift marks a dramatic change from earlier exit polls, which had predicted a comfortable win for the Congress.
An aggregate of seven exit polls had estimated that Congress would win 55 seats — 10 more than the 45-seat majority required to form the government — while the BJP was expected to secure only 26 seats. However, the current leads indicate a much stronger performance for the BJP than anticipated.
Despite the early predictions, celebrations broke out at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi, with party supporters celebrating even before the counting began. However, the mood shifted once it became clear that the BJP was likely to retain control in Haryana.
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Earlier in the day, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini expressed his confidence in the BJP’s performance and reiterated the party’s commitment to continuing its development work in the state. “We have done a lot of development work in the past 10 years. The kind of system set up by former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will continue to bring benefits for Haryana for a long time. It is our responsibility to take this good work forward,” Saini told reporters.
Nayab Singh Saini, who took over the chief ministership from Khattar in March, credited the party’s governance over the last decade as a key factor behind their strong showing in the elections.
In the 2019 Assembly elections, the BJP won 40 seats, Congress 31, and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) 10. Following those results, the BJP formed a coalition government with the JJP, with Dushyant Chautala serving as the Deputy Chief Minister. However, the alliance ended when Nayab Singh Saini became the new chief minister.
The BJP’s current success in Haryana is seen as a crucial moment for the party, especially after a less-than-ideal performance in the 2024 general elections, where it won only five of the state’s 10 Lok Sabha seats—a significant drop from its 2019 sweep.
For the Congress, this election was equally critical. After being nearly written off following defeats in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress leaders have been touting the party’s recent haul of 99 seats in the 2024 general elections as evidence of a resurgence. The results in Haryana, along with those in Jammu and Kashmir, are seen as a major test of the party’s ability to sustain its momentum.
