Vinesh Phogat wins: Olympian-turned-politician Vinesh Phogat has registered victory from Julana constituency, official data from Election Commission of India has shown. After 15 rounds of vote counting, it was revealed that Vinesh Phogat (Congress) got 65080 votes and defeated Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Yogesh Kumar by 6015 votes. Kumar got 59065 votes.
Phogat, who reached final round of women's wrestling in Paris Olympics this year but missed a medal after having been found overweight by just a few grammes. The wrestler joined Congress recently. Her entry in the 'Grand Old Party' was seen as a major boost to Congress' prospects.
Phogat was also at the forefront of wrestlers' protest against former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brijbhushan Sharan Singh during which Phogat along with fellow wrestlers Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia had accused Singh of sexually harassing female wrestlers.
Although Congress has been able to bag Julana, it has not been able to replicate the result across the state.
By 2:30 PM, BJP's tally (wins + leads) was 49. Congress (wins + lead) was at 36, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) was at 1. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was at 1.
Haryana Legislative Assembly has a total of 90 seats. The majority mark is at 46.
Before the election results, almost all exit polls had predicted a comfortable majority for Congress. The party even led that tally during very early hours of the vote counting. However, the BJP quickly caught up and surpassed Congress' tally.
Former CM wins
Other notable win for the Congress was former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda who registered victory from Garhi Sampla-Kiloi.
Hooda defeated BJP's Manju Singh by a convincing margin of 70,626 votes. Hooda got 1,07,520 votes while his opponent could not cross forty thousand mark. Hooda, who ruled Haryana from 2004 to 2014, spearheaded Congress' campaign in the run-up to assembly elections this time.
