Early leads out from Uttarakhand; BJP ahead, Congress behind

Soon after the counting began at the scheduled time 8 AM on Thursday, early data from Uttarakhand showed the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP taking the lead, leaving the Congress and other parties behind.

Out of the 28 seats looked into from the total 70, BJP marked the lead with 17, while Congress had the count 11. The early data suggested that the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party had not opened their lock yet.

Exit polls on Monday predicted a very close contest between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress in Uttarakhand. The exit polls showed the saffron party to be close to the majority mark of 36 in the 70-member Assembly, however, the surveys also projected that the grand old party was not far behind.

In the 2017 Uttarakhand Assembly election, the Harish Rawat-led Congress government lost power after BJP won 57 seats in the 70-member Assembly.

The largely bipolar politics of the state involving the two national parties, which have been alternately in power, had got a new twist this time with Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP in the fray, offering itself as an alternative to the Congress and the BJP. However, according to the exit polls, the AAP has failed to make a mark despite a major hype.