With exit polls having predicted a Congress victory in Haryana Assembly Elections 2024, all eyes are on the fate of senior party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Hooda is the Congress candidate from Garhi Sampla-Kiloi. The counting of votes is underway for the Haryana elections.

Speculation is rife that he could also be the Congress’s pick for being the Haryana Chief Minister. However, Hooda has so far refused to comment on this, saying the Congress high command will decide on the CM.

Hooda, 77, has served as the Chief Minister of Haryana from 2005 to 2014. He is the leader of the Opposition in Haryana Legislative Assembly.

A veteran Congress leader in the state, Hooda has won the Garhi Sampla Kiloi seat thrice – in 2009, 2014 and 2019. In 2019, Hooda had defeated BJP’s Satish Nandal by a margin of 58,312 votes.

According to his election affidavit, Hooda owns immovable property worth Rs 7.29 crore and movable property worth Rs 3.46 crore. He is facing eight criminal cases, out of which four are under investigation and four are pending in various courts.

‘Confident of Win’

While campaigning in Haryana, Hooda, when asked about the Congress’s chance this election, had told PTI, “I am travelling across the state and we are getting tremendous support from all sections. On the basis of that, I can say that people have made up their minds — abki baar Congress ki sarkar.”

On where he sees himself in the race for the chief minister’s post, Hooda said the Congress has an established norm that MLAs are elected, observers come to take their opinion, and then the high command takes a decision. “Whatever it decides will be acceptable to me,” the former Haryana chief minister had said.

Haryana Election 2024 Result: Will the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) form the government for the third time in Haryana or will the Congress prove exit polls right and snatch victory after 10 years in one of the most closely watched assembly elections? As the counting of votes begins, all eyes are on the first major direct contest between the BJP and the Congress following the Lok Sabha polls, given that the result will be used by the winner to build a narrative in their favour in other states where polls due over the next few months. The key parties in the fray are BJP, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, INLD-BSP and JJP-Azad Samaj Party. However, most seats are likely to see a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress.

A total of 1,031 candidates, including 464 Independents and 101 women, are in the fray in Haryana’s 90 constituencies which voted in single phase on October 5. Several exit polls have predicted a Congress victory in Haryana which recorded a voter turnout of 67.90 per cent.

Here are the latest updates:

• Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has claimed his party BJP will form the government for a third time with full majority, claiming that when results are announced on October 8, the Congress will blame Electronic Voting Machines.

• On the other hand, Congress leader and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a frontrunner for the chief minister’s post if his party wins, exuded confidence of a comfortable majority. The INLD-BSP alliance has also claimed that it will form the next government once results are declared, while JJP leader Dushyant Chautala has exuded confidence that his alliance will get good numbers.

• Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, whose party contested Haryana polls on its own, has been claiming that no government in Haryana can be formed without the support of party.

• Prominent among those in the fray are chief minister Saini (Ladwa), Leader of Opposition Hooda (Garhi Sampla-Kiloi), INLD’s Abhay Chautala (Ellenabad), JJP’s Dushyant Chautala (Uchana Kalan), BJP’s Anil Vij (Ambala Cantt), Capt Abhimanyu (Narnaund), OP Dhankar (Badli), AAP’s Anurag Dhanda (Kalayat) and Congress’ Vinesh Phogat (Julana).

• In the outgoing Assembly, the strength of ruling BJP is 41 (including the Adampur seat won in 2022 bypoll), the Congress has 28 MLAs, the JJP (6), while Haryana Lokhit Party and Indian National Lok Dal have one member each. There are four Independents, while nine seats are vacant. Seven of the nine seats fell vacant as their representatives resigned after switching sides, while the Badshahpur seat fell vacant as Independent MLA Rakesh Daulatabad died in May.

• In 2019, the BJP formed the government with the support of JJP while most Independents had also extended support. However, JJP’s post-poll tie-up with the BJP ended after the saffron party replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini as chief minister in March this year.