Indian Polls

Chandigarh, Oct 26 (PTI) The BJP staked claim to form the government in Haryana on Saturday with the support of the Dushyant Chautala-led JJP, party sources said here.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Manohar Lal Khattar and state party chief Subhash Barala, met Haryana Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya for staking claim to form the government.

Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader Chautala also met the governor and gave his party's letter of support to him.

The JJP has extended support to the saffron party.

Mumbai, Oct 26 (PTI) The Maharashtra BJP has convened a meeting of its newly-elected MLAs on October 30 to elect the leader of the House, state unit chief Chandrakant Patil said on Saturday.

Patil said the meeting will be held in Vidhan Bhavan at 1pm.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is in touch with 15 MLAs, Independents as well as from smaller parties, for support.

The BJP returned a less-than-impressive performance in the state Assembly polls, with its seats dropping from 122 to 105 in the 288-member House.

New Delhi, Oct 25 (PTI) Five Independent MLAs, along with Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and BJP's Haryana in-charge Anil Jain, met the party's working president, J P Nadda, at his residence here on Friday to finalise the modalities of government formation, sources said.

The five Independent legislators -- Dharampal Gondan, Nayanpal Rawat, Sombir Sangwan, Rakesh Daulatabad and Randheer Golan -- met Nadda and extended their support to the saffron party, BJP leader Jawahar Yadav said.

New Delhi, Oct 25 (PTI) Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader Dushyant Chautala, who has emerged as a kingmaker in Haryana, will meet his 10 legislators on Friday at his residence here to decide on the future course of the party.

The Haryana Assembly poll verdict threw up a fractured mandate with the Congress winning 31 of the 90 seats at stake and the BJP bagging 40 seats. The half-way mark is 46.

He will also meet his father Ajay Chautala, who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail, before taking a final decision on the future course of action.

Lucknow, Oct 24 (PTI) Samajwadi Party on Thursday retained its Rampur assembly seat, which fell vacant after Azam Khan successfully fought the Lok Sabha polls with his wife emerging victorious by a margin of over 7,000 votes.

Khan's wife and SP candidate Tazeen Fatma won by defeating her nearest rival BJP candidate Bharat Bhushan.

While Tazeen secured 79,043 votes, Bhushan got 71,327 votes.

Mumbai, Oct 24 (PTI) Indicating that he would drive a hard bargain in talks with the ally BJP during government formation, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said on Thursday that it was time to implement "fifty-fifty" formula for power-sharing.

The BJP had won or was leading on 101 seats and Sena on 57 seats out of the total 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra as counting was underway for the state polls.

Chennai, Oct 24 (PTI) The ruling parties in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Telangana won the respective Assembly bypolls in the three southern states on Thursday, but most importantly the AIADMK and CPI (M) bounced back from the severe drubbing they received in the April 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The victory for Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan, months after the rout comes as a morale-booster for the two leaders ahead of the next Assembly polls in both states in 2021.

Hyderabad, Oct 24 (PTI) The ruling TRS in Telangana on Thursday won the October 21 bypoll to Huzurnagar Assembly constituency by a margin of more than 43,000 votes over its nearest Congress rival N Padmavati Reddy.

The Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao-led party maintained a consistent lead over the opposition Congress during the counting of votes from the first round.

TRS nominee S Saidi Reddy polled 1,13,095 while 69,737 votes were polled in favour of the Congress candidate, according to figures put out by the Chief electoral Officer.

Chandigarh, Oct 24 (PTI) Almost half of ruling BJP's sitting MLAs lost the elections, including eight ministers, as Haryana threw up a fractured mandate on Thursday.

The losers included ministers Ram Bilas Sharma, Capt Abhimanyu and O P Dhankar.

Some of the prominent legislators who lost included Latika Sharma, Prem Lata, Bakshish Singh Virk and Bhagwan Dass Kabirpanthi.

New Delhi, Oct 24 (PTI) BJP president Amit Shah indicated on Thursday that his party will stake claim to form the next government in Haryana after the assembly election results threw up a hung verdict.

The BJP was either winning or leading in 40 seats in the elections to the 90-member state assembly, according to the latest election commission figures, falling short of the majority mark of 46.