Exit polls forecast big win for BJP in Maharashtra, Haryana
New Delhi, Oct 21: The BJP appeared set to return to power with a bigger mandate in Maharashtra, where it is in alliance with the Shiv Sena, and Haryana, as exit polls forecast a facile victory for the party in the two states and rout for its rivals led by the Congress.
Exit polls, broadcast soon after the polling ended, varied widely in their projection of seats for the rival alliances but an emphatic victory with more than two-third seats for the BJP-led NDA in Maharashtra and Haryana was the common theme.
The India Today-Axis exit poll projected 166-194 seats for the BJP-Shiv Sena in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly and 72-90 for the Congress-NCP alliance.
The exit poll by News18-IPSOS gave the BJP a near-majority on its own by predicting a whopping 142 seats for the party and 102 for its ally Shiv Sena. The Congress and NCP will bag 17 and 22 seats only, it has forecast.
The ABP-C Voter predicted 204 seats for the BJP-Shiv Sena and 69 for the Congress-NCP.
In Haryana, the extent of a BJP win was projected to be even more dominant.
The ABP-C Voter forecast 72 and eight seats for the BJP and the Congress respectively. The CNN-IPSOS projected 75 and 10 seats for the two parties respectively.
The poll of polls brought out by the NDA gave the BJP and the Congress 66 and 14 seats respectively in Haryana, and 211 and 64 for the saffron alliance and the Congress-NCP in Maharashtra.
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Time will reveal if leadership change in Karnataka is imminent: Shivakumar
Hubballi (Karnataka) (PTI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Tuesday said time will tell if the state will see a new CM after the by-elections to two assembly seats.
Bypolls for the Bagalkot and Davanagere South Assembly constituencies will be held on April 9. The polls were necessitated following the deaths of senior Congress MLAs H Y Meti and Shamanur Shivashankarappa, respectively.
"Why are you worried about it? There is no need to make it an issue... I have already said that time will answer it," Shivakumar told reporters in response to a question about whether he would become the CM and if there would be a leadership change after the bypolls.
Responding to statements by some leaders, including Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan, that incumbent Siddaramaiah will be CM till 2028, he said, "I'm not ready to comment on statements made by others. I'm the party president... either the CM or I will have to speak on this matter. Other than what the two of us say, the rest is immaterial."
Asked about the secret behind his patience, Shivakumar replied, "Time will answer."
Recently, Siddaramaiah had said that the Congress government will remain in power for two more years and that he is the Chief Minister of the state.
The leadership tussle within the ruling party has intensified amid speculation about a possible change of chief minister after the Congress government completed the halfway mark of its five-year term on November 20, 2025.
The speculation has been fuelled by the reported "power-sharing" arrangement between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar at the time of government formation in 2023.
