The ruling BJP edged past the Congress in Haryana while the National Conference-Congress alliance was headed for a majority in Jammu and Kashmir, according to trends on the Election Commission website on Tuesday.

As votes were counted for assembly elections held last month, it was a mixed bag for the Congress and the BJP - the saffron party headed for defeat in Jammu and Kashmir but bucked early morning trends to move ahead of the Congress in the nail biting Haryana contest. If the trends hold, the Congress may well have to settle for a loss in the heartland state and a ‘second partner win’ in the union territory.

The BJP, hoping for a third consecutive term in Haryana, was ahead in 47 of the 90 seats in Haryana, two over the halfway mark. The Congress, which had surged ahead in morning leads, was leading in 36 seats.

As the vote count oscillated between the ruling and the opposition parties, the vote share was also tantalisingly close at 11 am, three hours after counting began. The BJP was at 38.7 per cent and the Congress a little more at 40.5 per cent.

“The Congress will get a majority. Congress will form government in Haryana,” veteran Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda told reporters in Rohtak.

“The credit will go to Rahul Gandhi ji, Mallikarjun Kharge ji, Priyanka Gandhi ji, and other leaders," he said, adding that the real credit goes to the people of Haryana. Kumari Selja, his party colleague and a rival for the chief ministerial post should the Congress win Haryana, was also sure her party would emerge victorious.

“Hold your horses. Congress will form a government with overwhelming majority,” she said.

The BJP was equally confident.

“We are pretty confident we will win Haryana with a good margin and form government for a third time,” party leader Harish Khurana told NDTV.

Jammu and Kashmir, where assembly elections are being held for the first time since 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated and the state bifurcated into union territories, looked set to throw up a decisive verdict.

The NC-Congress alliance was ahead in 47 of the 90 seats - 39 for the NC and eight for the Congress. The BJP was leading in 28 seats, Independents in eight and the PDP in four.

“If the mandate of the people is against the BJP, then the BJP should not indulge in any 'jugaad' (machinations) or something else," NC leader Omar Abdullah told reporters in Srinagar.

"The Raj Bhavan and the Centre should accept the decision of people the way we did in the Parliamentary polls… We have hopes of a win, but the rest is in the hands of God. We will come to know around the noon what the people of J-K have decided," he added.

“Early trends are positive, it will improve...voters wanted to send a message to BJP,” said Congress leader Suhail Bukhari.

Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina was trailing in the Nowshera assembly constituency.

A three-tier security set up has been put in place at all the counting centres to ensure that all goes well in the restive border UT, long a stress point and witness to repeated instances of terrorism, insurgency and infiltration from across the border.

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