Ahead of Assembly results, Hooda confidant of 'thumping majority' for Congress

New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS) Ahead of the Assembly election results day, two-time Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda on Monday expressed confidence in the Congress forming a government in the state with a "thumping majority".

Justifying his claim of the Congress returning to the helm after a decade, Hooda told the media here that the vote share of the party increased in all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.

"In all 90 Vidhan Sabha seats also, the vote share of the Congress has increased. The people have indicated this very clearly," he said.

"The party has performed well on all the seats. The people have compared the success of the Congress party from 2005 to 2014 and the failures of BJP from 2014 to 2024, he said. Hooda also said the party has increased its vote share due to the massive response from Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra.

On the party’s chief ministerial face, if the party wins a majority, the veteran leader replied: "We will seek the opinion of MLAs, and then the high command will make the final decision."

Ahead of the results, the party in charge of Haryana, Deepak Babaria met Hooda at the latter's residence in the national capital.

Hooda's parliamentarian son Deepender Hooda said that the party workers had worked very hard. "Tomorrow the results of the Haryana Assembly elections will be in favour of the Congress party," a confidant junior Hooda said.

He said exit polls "are in place and they are showing the direction of Haryana. But, we also have some assessments at the grassroots. I can say with confidence that the Congress is forming the state government with a huge majority".

He said peaceful voting took place on all 90 Assembly seats on October 5. “Barring one or two cases, the election was quite good. The people of Haryana participated enthusiastically in this election. The percentage of voting has also increased.”

Asked about the ruling BJP’s claim of a hat-trick of wins, he said the BJP leaders are given this type of training so that they can lie with confidence. Listing the shortcomings of the BJP government, he said: "Now Haryana is moving towards a new beginning. There will be a new beginning in the Congress government. Our only aim will be to develop Haryana the most compared to other states."

On the chief ministerial face, the junior Hooda said: "There is a complete process for this and this is being followed for years. There will be a meeting of the legislative party in which the leader of the legislative party will be elected. After this, whatever decision the central leadership takes, the Congress family will take it forward."

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pankaj Agarwal said 67.90 per cent voting took place in the election on Saturday. The highest - 75.36 per cent - voting was recorded in the Sirsa district and the lowest - 56.49 per cent - voting was recorded in the Faridabad district. As per the constituency, the highest 80.61 per cent voting was recorded in Ellenabad and the lowest 48.27 per cent voting was recorded in Badkhal.