Congress wins all three states

The Congress, along with its ally NCP, was poised to retain power in Maharashtra. The party position in 74 of the 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra- Congress-NCP wins 41, Shiv Sena-BJP wins 24, MNS 3, Third Front 3, and Others 3. The Congress-NCP combine is also leading in a majority of seats.

In the 288-member Maharasthra Assembly, Congress-NCP combine is leading in 137 seats as against Shiv Sena-BJP coalition which is ahead in 100 seats. The Raj Thackeray-led MNS is leading in 15 constituencies.

HARYANA
The ruling Congress is heading for a simple majority in the 90 member Haryana Assembly winning 11 of the 23 seats which were declared and leading in 29 others much less than 67 seats in 2005 which made the party come back to power with over two third majority drubbing the INLD.

INLD, which had yielded power to the Congress five years back, was set to improve its 2005 performance of nine having won seven seats even as the Om Parkash Chautala led party was leading in 22 others.

Parkash Singh Badal led SAD would be making its maiden entry in the Haryana assembly with its candidate Charanjit Singh winning from Kalanwali defeating his nearest rival Sushil Kumar Indora, who contested as a ruling Congress nominee after deserting Chautala's INLD shortly before the elections.

BJP nominee Anil Vij, who was an Independent nominee five years back, was elected from Ambala Cantt defeating his nearest rival former Agriculture Minister Nirmal Singh by a margin of 6338 votes.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had addressed his only election meeting at Ambala Cantt in support of Nirmal Singh and other party nominees in the district.

The saffron party nominees were leading in three other constituencies even though the party after breaking its alliance with Om Parkash Chautala led INLD had contested all the 90 seats.

Independents had won three seats and were leading in five others while HJC-BL and BSP nominees were leading in five and three constituencies respectively.

Haryana Congress President Phool Chand Mullana lost to Rajbir Barara (INLD) from Mullana by a margin of 2938 votes. Mullana was seeking re-election from Mullana.

In Kaithal district the party could retain only Kaithal out of the four constituencies. The sitting MLAs of the party lost from Guhla, Pundri and Kalayat.

Former chief minister and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) president Om Prakash Chautala defeats Haryana's finance minister and senior Congress leader Birender Singh by a narrow margin of 621 votes from Uchana Kalan assembly constituency.

Congress' Savitri Jindal, mother of noted industrialist and Lok Sabha MP Navin Jindal, retained the Hisar assembly seat by a margin of 14,728 votes. She defeated her nearest rival Gautam Sardana,(Independent).
Venod Sharma (Congress) retained the Ambala City seat with a margin of 35,550 votes by trouncing his nearest rival Charanjeet Kaur of Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal). Congress’ Kuldeep Sharma also won the Ganaur seat. Congress heavyweight Randeep Surjewala retained his seat.

Indian National Lok Dal Secretary General and Rajya Sabha MP Ajay Chautala wins from Dabwali assembly constituency defeating Dr K V Singh of the Congress by a margin of 12,108 votes.

Cricketer Yuvraj Singh's father Yograj (INLD) has lost to D K Bansal (Congress) from Panchkula while HJC-BL President Kuldeep Bishnoi was ahead over Krishan Gopal Tyagi (INLD) from Adampur.

Three Independents Sukhbir Singh, Sultan Singh and Prahlad Singh won the Gurgaon, Pundri and Fatehabad assembly seats defeating nearest Congress rivals. Independents were leading in nine other constituencies.

ARUNACHAL PRADESH
The ruling Congress continued its triumphant run in Arunachal Pradesh, winning 17 of the 23 seats declared so far, as the Trinamool Congress sprang a surprise by bagging one seat in its electoral debut in the state.
Voting was held for 57 seats with three candidates already declared elected unopposed.

Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and two more ruling Congress members were declared elected unopposed - sitting MLA Tsewang Dhondup from Tawang and debutant Jambey Tashi from Lumla.

Khandu was elected unopposed from the Mukto constituency in Tawang district, bordering China, in the 1999 and 2004 assembly elections.

Of the 23 seats declared so far, the Congress party won 17 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Trinamool Congress won a seat each. Three seats were won by independents and candidates of smaller regional parties.

According to latest trends, the Congress is leading in 12 seats, while the Trinamool Congress is ahead in two seats.

Trinamool Congress candidate Kamthok Lowang won the Khnosa East seat defeating Congress candidate and former minister T L Rajkumar by a just 455 votes, the only surprise result so far in the polls.

According to latest trends and results, Wangi Lowang of the Congress defeated his nearest NCP rival by 2,693 votes in the Namsang constituency, while Tapang Taloh of the Congress party won the Pangin seat by 2,781 votes defeating his NCP rival Kaling Jerang.

Karikho Kri of the ruling Congress has also been declared elected, defeating Trinamool Congress candidate Nakul Chai by 3,845 votes.

Voting for the 60-member assembly elections ended Oct 13 with an estimated 72 percent polling recorded out of a total of 7,50,000 voters.

A total of 154 candidates were in the fray with the ruling Congress party fielding candidates in all the 60 seats.

Apart from the Congress party, the NCP has fielded 36 candidates, the BJP 22, although the surprise element is the Trinamool Congress with 26 candidates in the fray.

Of the 28 candidates fielded by the Trinamool Congress, five are former Congress party ministers and 10 are sitting MLAs from the ruling party who were denied tickets this time.

MAHARASHTRA
The Congress-NCP alliance, which had won 140 seats in the last elections, may end up with almost the same figure and may not have problems in forming the government with the support of rebels of both the parties and independents.

Affected vastly by the presence of Raj Thackeray-led MNS, the Shiv Sena-BJP combine has managed to be ahead in only 84 seats, far behind its 2004 tally of 116 seats. Shiv Sena won 2 seats and was ahead in 41 seats, while BJP bagged one seat and was leading in 46 seats.

With NCP leader Chagan Bhujbal floating the idea of rotating the post of Chief Minister, senior Congress leader Vilasrao Deshmukh said there was no doubt about his party getting the Chief Ministership in Maharashtra

"Whatever the question raised, I think the issue has been clarified by NCP chief Sharad Pawar that the chief minister will be from Congress," Deshmukh said.

He was responding to a question on Bhujbal's idea of rotating the post of chief minister in Maharashtra between Congress and ally NCP.

"I don't see any controversy on the issue in the wake of the clarification given by the NCP high command," he said.

Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal (NCP) was leading by 1,739 votes at the end of first round of counting at Yeola assembly constituency in Nashik district. His son Pankaj is leading in Nandgaon constituency.

In Alibaug, Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) candidate Meenakshi Patil is leading over Madhu Thakur of Congress after first three rounds of counting.

In Karjat constituency of Raigad district, Suresh Lad of NCP is ahead of Sena candidate Devendra Satam.
From Pen seat, Congress candidate Raviseth Patil is ahead of PWP candidate Dhairsheel Patil.

In Shrivardhan constituency, NCP's Sunil Tatakare is leading over Shiv Sena candidate Tukaram Surve and in Mahad, Sena nominee Bharat Gogawale is ahead of NCP candidate Manik Jagtap.