Maharashtra, Haryana 2019 Assembly elections: Result date, time, key constituencies and candidates

Maharashtra witnessed a largely bipolar contest with BJP and Shiv Sena fighting together against the Congress and NCP combine. Haryana witnessed a multi-cornered battle with BJP and Congress going solo while the Opposition INLD split with one group forming the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP).

Result date and time

The results will be announced on October 24, i.e., Thursday. The counting will start at 7:30 am. While initial trends will start trickling in soon after, a clearer picture is expected to emerge by afternoon.

Key Constituencies

In Haryana, a total of 1,169 candidates are in the fray for the 90-member Assembly. For the BJP, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar leads the baton from Karnal constituency, from where he had won by 63,000 votes in 2014.

The BJP has fielded TikTok star Sonali Phogat and three sportspersons— Babita Phogat, Yogeshwar Dutt and Sandeep Singh. While Sonali is contesting from Adampur seat, Babita, Yogeshwar and Sandeep have been fielded from Dari, Baroda and Pehowa seats, respectively.

Haryana ministers such as Ram Bilas Sharma, Anil Vij, Capt Abhimanyu, O P Dhankar and Kavita Jain are also in the fray for the BJP.

For the Congress, bigwigs in the contest include former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Kiran Choudhary, Ranbir Mahendra and Kuldeep Bishnoi.

Hooda is up against BJP’s Satish Nandal in his home constituency Garhi Sampla-Kiloi in Rohtak district. Surjewala, who lost the Jind bypoll in January this year, has again been entrusted by the party and is fielded from Kaithal.

Senior leaders Kiran Choudhary and Ranbir Mahendra have been fielded from Tosham and Adampur, respectively.

Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader Dushyant Chautala and Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD) Abhay Singh Chautala are also in the fray. While Dushyant is contesting from Uchana Kalan in Jind district, Abhay is in the fray from Ellenabad in Sirsa.

Maharashtra

In Maharashtra, a total of 3,237 candidates are contesting to get elected in the 288 member state Assembly.

For the BJP, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is seeking re-election from Nagpur South, which he has been representing since 2009. BJP’s state unit chief Chandrakant Patil is contesting from Kothrud Assembly seat in Pune.

Pankaja Munde, daughter of late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde, is contesting from Parli Assembly seat in Beed district against her cousin Dhananjay Munde, whom she had defeated in 2014.

Former state minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, who quit the Congress to join BJP ahead of the polls, is contesting from Shirdi.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aaditya is also in the election fray this time, contesting from Worli Assembly seat, which has been a Sena stronghold. Aaditya became the first member of the Thackeray family to enter the electoral fray.

Meanwhile, two former chief ministers are leading the charge for the Congress this time. Former chief ministers Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan are contesting from Bhokar and Karad (South) Assembly seats, respectively.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar is contesting from Baramati Assembly seat.

Exit polls

All the five pollsters predicted a return to office for Devendra Fadnavis and Manohar Lal Khattar, giving more than two-third seats for the BJP-led NDA in Maharashtra and Haryana. The India Today-Axis exit poll projected 166-194 seats for the BJP-Shiv Sena combine and 72-90 for the Congress-NCP alliance in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly.

The News18-IPSOS exit poll gave the BJP-Shiv Sena 243 seats, with the BJP getting 141 out of it on its own. The exit poll predicted Congress and NCP to bag 17 and 22 seats, respectively. Times Now gave BJP-Shiv Sena 230 seats and predicted 48 seats for Congress-NCP.

In Haryana, the ABP-C Voter forecast 72 and 8 seats for the BJP and the Congress, respectively. The CNN-IPSOS projected 75 seats for BJP and 10 seats for the Congress.

In 2014, the BJP and the Sena had won 122 seats and 63 seats, respectively followed by 42 and 41 seats by the Congress and the NCP. All four parties had contested independently in the previous assembly polls. In Haryana, the BJP had won 47 followed by INLD’s 19 and 15 of the Congress.