Haryana: BJP, Congress lead in five Lok Sabha seats each

Chandigarh: The BJP and the Congress are leading in five Lok Sabha seats each in Haryana, with prominent leaders such as Manohar Lal Khattar, Kumari Selja and Deepender Singh Hooda set to score big wins.

According to Election Commission trends, BJP candidates were leading in the Karnal, Gurugram, Faridabad, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh and Kurukshetra seats, while Congress was ahead in Ambala, Hisar, Rohtak, Sirsa and Sonipat.

Former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar was set for a comfortable win from the Karnal seat, having earned an unassailable lead of 2,02,432 votes over his Congress rival Divyanshu Budhiraja.

Union minister and sitting MP from Gurgaon Rao Inderjit Singh was leading over the Congress' Raj Babbar by a margin of 46,197 votes.

Congress stalwart Kumari Selja was leading with a heavy margin of 2,51,017 votes over her BJP rival Ashok Tanwar in the Sirsa seat.

In Rohtak, senior Congress leader Deepender Singh Hooda has also earned an unassailable lead over sitting BJP MP Arvind Sharma by 2,52,994 votes.

However, in Sonipat, a close fight was on between the Congress' Satpal Brahmachari and the BJP's sitting MLA Mohan Lal Badoli, with the grand old party candidate leading by a thin margin of 6,530 votes.

In the Ambala constituency, the Congress' Varun Chaudhary was leading over his BJP rival Banto Kataria by 33,310 votes.

Congress candidate Jai Prakash was ahead of the BJP's Ranjit Chautala in Hisar by a margin of 25,910 votes.

Union minister Krishan Pal Gurjar, who is the sitting MP from Faridabad, was leading over the Congress' Mahender Pratap Singh by 1,62,753 votes.

In the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat, sitting BJP MP Dharambir Singh was leading over Congress MLA Rao Dan Singh by a narrow margin of 40,422 votes.

From Kurukshetra, BJP candidate Naveen Jindal, who had been trailing for quite some time, was now ahead of his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) rival Sushil Gupta by a margin of 14,328 votes.

Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Singh Chautala was also in the fray from Kurukshetra but was trailing. His party candidates in six other constituencies were behind as well.

Likewise, candidates of the Jannayak Janta Party, whose alliance with the BJP ended in March, and the Bahujan Samaj Party were also trailing.

In the Karnal assembly constituency, where a bypoll was held, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini was leading by 37,635 votes over Congress nominee Tarlochan Singh.

The counting of votes began at 8 am amid tight security arrangements at 91 counting centres.

In the 2019 general election, the BJP won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.

This time, the Congress has fielded candidates on nine seats while its INDIA bloc ally AAP is contesting the Kurukshetra seat.