News18-IPSOS Exit Poll Results for Haryana Assembly: BJP to win 75 seats, Congress 10; wrestlers Yogeshwar Dutt, Babita Phogat face tough competition

The News18-IPSOS exit poll on Monday predicted that the Bharatiya Janata Party will return with a bigger mandate in the Haryana, with the party winning 75 seats in the 90-member Assembly. The party currently holds 48 seats in the state Assembly.

According to the poll, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) is set to draw a blank in the state while the Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) is projected to win 2 seats. As per the poll, the Congress will suffer a setback and win just 10 seats as compared to the 15 it had won in the 2014 Assembly elections. SAD, a BJP ally, is expected to win one seat.

While a comfortable win has been predicted for the BJP, the wrestlers Yogeshwar Dutt and Babita Phogat are unlikely to win the seats of Baroda and Dadri. According to the poll, Dutt, a 2012 Olympics bronze medallist, faces tough competition from sitting Congress MLA Sri Kishen in the Baroda seat which has traditionally been represented by the INLD or the Congress.

Phogat is up against Nripendera Sangwan of the Congress and Somveer Sangwan, a former BJP candidate who contested as an Independent in the Dadri seat.

The poll has also predicted a tough competition for Congress spokesperson, Randeep Singh Surjewala, the sitting MLA from the Kaithal seat. He is up against BJP's Lila Ram and INLD's Anil Kumar.

The Congress and the JJP were BJP's main competitors in the polls which concluded at 6 pm on Monday. The state recorded 62.64 percent voter turnout at the end of polling.

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The main poll plank of the during the poll campaigning which ended on Saturday as the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and other issues surrounding nationalism.

The Congress, JJP, INLD, AAP, BSP and other opponents targeted the Manohar Lal Khattar-led government over unemployment, economy, farmers distress and alleged scams including mining and cash-for-jobs scam and "deteriorating" law and order situation in the state.

Ahead of the polls, the BJP denied tickets to 12 of its sitting legislators, which included two ministers - Vipul Goel (Faridabad) and Rao Narbir Singh (Badshahpur). Of the 12 legislators, Randhir Kapriwas turned rebel and entered the fray from Rewari.

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The Congress retained its sitting legislators while the INLD saw its prominent faces switching over to the BJP, the Congress and the JJP.

In the 2014 Assembly polls, the BJP had won 47 seats. It won the Jind bypolls earlier this year, taking its total strength in the state assembly to 48. The INLD had 19 MLAs while the Congress has 17 legislators. The BSP and the SAD had bagged one seat each in the last polls while five were Independents.

With inputs from PTI