Counting of votes in five states is underway. Congress candidates took significant leads in BJP-ruled Rajasthan and was inching ahead of the BJP in both Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in Assembly elections held in five states.
Early trends from counting centres also showed that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) appeared set to retain power in Telangana while the ruling Congress was lagging behind the Mizo National Front (MNF) in Mizoram in state elections that were widely dubbed a “semi-final” ahead of the Lok Sabha battle next year.
The ruling BJP lagged behind the Congress as votes were counted in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday. Three-term Chief Minister Raman Singh of the BJP was briefly trailing in his constituency, but is now leading. As the Congress widened the gap with the BJP in Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh was locked in a tough fight in Rajnandgaon seat, where his rival is Congress’s Karuna Shukla, the niece of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
HYDERABAD: K Chandrashekar Rao’s move to dissolve the Telangana assembly appears to have paid off handsomely as his Telangana Rashtra Samithi established a huge lead over the Congress-Chandrababu Naidu alliance in the Telangana assembly elections today. The party is leading in 82 of the state’s 119 seats, the alliance in 24.