Cong wins Maha and Arunachal, Haryana throws up hung House

The Congress romped home victorious for a third straight term in Maharashtra, swept Arunachal Pradesh with a two-third majority but its snap poll gamble failed in Haryana falling short of six seats in a hung house.

The poll outcome in the first major test for political parties after the May Lok Sabha polls mirrored Congress's showing then though it fell short of expectations in Haryana where a resurgent INLD put up a good showing.

Despite a 2% vote swing against it, the Congress-NCP combine ruling Maharashtra for the past ten years beat the anti-incumbency factor and clung to power getting four more seats getting 144 in a House of 288. The combine needed just one seat more for a simple majority.

Congress won 82 while Sharad Pawar's NCP bagged 62 as against 69 and 71 respectively in the previous elections.

The fledgling Raj Thackeray-led MNS, which made its  debut in the assembly polls, won a dozen seats, playing the spoilsport for the Shiv Sena-BJP combine shose vote share fell by seven per cent --exactly the same as the difference with the vote share of Congress-NCP combine(37 per cent).

The saffron combine secured 90 seats, 26 less than their 2004 tally of 116. BJP got 46 seats while Shiv Sena got 44.

In Haryana, the Congress was scrambling to get support of six MLAs to cobble up a majority in the 90-member House.

Congress emerged as the single largest party winning 40 seats, six short of majority. It lost 27 seats. In contrast Om Prakash Chautala's INLD got 22 more seats to get 31.

Bhajan Lal's Haryana Janhit Congress with six seats is expected to be a key player. Its leader Kuldeep Bishnoi said the party was getting feelers for an alliance from both Chautala and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.