NEW DELHI, Oct 15:
BJP was today projected in exit polls to emerge as the largest party in both Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections stopping short of majority.
The Congress and NCP, which were ruling Maharashtra for 15 years before they split ahead of the elections, were projected to lose heavily while Shiv Sena was predicted to emerge as the second largest party.
One exit poll conducted by ‘Today’s Chanakya’, however, gave a clear majority for BJP in both Maharashtra and Haryana.
Maharashtra, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned extensively addressing 27 rallies, appears to be heading for a BJP Government for the first time in the State’s history.
According to C-voter exit poll telecast on Times Now and Zee News channels, BJP was projected to get 129 out of 288 seats. Its erstwhile ally Shiv Sena was projected to get 56 seats while Congress was predicted to bag 43, NCP 36, MNS 12 and others 12. For a majority, a party has to get 145 seats.
In the outgoing Assembly, BJP had 47 seats while Shiv Sena had 45. Congress had 82 seats, NCP 62 and MNS had 12.
Exit poll conducted by AC Nielson for ABP channel gave BJP 127 seats, Shiv Sena 77, Congress 40, NCP 34 and MNS 5.
An exit poll telecast on India TV gave BJP between 124 and 134 seats, Shiv Sena 51-61, Congress 38-48, NCP 31-41 and MNS and others 9-15 each.
Today’s Chanakya exit poll telecast on News24 channel gave BJP a clear majority with 151 seats while Shiv Sena was given 71. Congress was given 27 while NCP 28. MNS was projected to get 11.
The same pollster projected clear majority for BJP in Haryana, giving it 52 of the 90 seats. INLD comes second with 23 seats, Congress 10 and others 5.
In the outgoing Assembly, Congress had 40 seats, BJP had only four, INLD 31 and HJC 6. Others had 9.
Exit poll by C-Voter projected 37 seats for BJP in Haryana, 28 for INLD, 15 for Congress, 6 for Haryana Janhit Congress and 4 for others.
AC-Nielson gave 46 to BJP, Congress 10, INLD 29, HJC two and others three.
If the projections come true, BJP will be forming the Government in Haryana for the first time ever.
Modi campaigned extensively in the State, addressing 11 rallies.
Counting of votes will take place on October 19.
The India Today-Cicero exit poll on Headlines Today projected BJP to get 117-131 seats in Maharashtra followed by Shiv Sena with 66-76 seats.
Congress, NCP and MNS were given 30-40, 24-34 and 4-10 seats by the pollster. Others were given 18-26 seats in the 288-seat strong State Assembly.
Later, the ABP-Nielson revised its projection for both States in which it gave a clear majority to the BJP. In Maharashtra, it projected BJP and its allies to get 144 seats, followed by 77 to Shiv Sena, 30 to Congress, 29 to NCP and 3 to MNS.
In 90-member Haryana Assembly, it projected that the BJP will get 54 seats, followed by 22 to INLD, 10 to Congress, 2 to HJC and 2 to others.
The India Today-Cicero exit polls projected BJP to get 45 seats in Haryana followed by INLD with 27 seats.
Meanwhile, Haryana today registered a record voter turnout in the Assembly elections with 73 per cent of the electorate exercising their franchise to choose the next Government in the State.
In Maharashtra, which also voted today for Assembly polls, a turnout of 54.6 per cent was recorded till 5 pm.
Deputy Election Commissioner Sudhir Tripathi said that since voting was still going on, the Commission’s “guesstimate” is that the turnout figure could touch 62 per cent in Maharashtra.
Voting was “by and large” peaceful in both the States barring a few incidents of violence.
In Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli, Naxals exploded a landmine and opened fire on a polling party. A CRPF jawan was hurt in the incident and has been airlifted for treatment to Nagpur.
Further, an exchange of fire also took place between security forces and naxalites in Tadpalli forests, also in Gadchiroli. No one from either side was injured in this incident and it did not affect the poll process at a nearby polling station, Tripathi said.
Deputy EC Umesh Sinha, in charge of Haryana, said that the State recorded its highest-ever voter turnout during the course of polling today. In the 2009 polls, 72.37 per cent votes were cast, he added.
Responding to a query about a TV-channel owner allegedly trying to influence voters, Sinha said one of the complaints related to that.
EC was hoping that the voter turnout would increase in Maharashtra after final figures are collated at the end of polling. In the 2009 Assembly polls, the figure was 59.49 per cent.
Director General in EC, PK Dash, said that enforcement authorities have seized Rs 17.92 crore in cash in Maharashtra during the elections, which was “the highest ever”.
Authorities also recovered 4.61 lakh litres of liquor worth Rs 10.19 crore. “Out of 348 notices, 73 confirmed cases of paid news were found,” he said.
In Haryana, Rs 3.10 crore in cash was recovered, while 1.82 lakh litres of liquor worth Rs 3.69 crore was seized.
Out of over 190 notices of paid news, 67 cases have been confirmed, Dash added. (PTI)
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