Congress desperate for independents to form governments

Congress is on the look out for independents to take it past the majority mark in Haryana and Maharashtra, where the party along with NCP has fallen short of the magic number.

The results in Haryana, in particular, have come as a rude shock to the party, which was expecting a clean sweep in the elections, but it fell six short of 46 seats in the 90-member House.

With all the results declared, the Congress finished with a tally of 40 followed by 31 of INLD, whose ally Shiromani Akali Dal got one seat. Haryana Janhit Congress-BL, a new entrant in assembly polls, got six seats, BJP four and BSP one.

As the elections threw up a hung House, about half a dozen independents could play a major role in government formation.

The Congress, however, ruled out the possibility of any alliance with Haryana Janhit Congress-BL. "Why go to a shop, which has no stuff," was the remark of a senior party leader when asked whether Congress will seek HJC's help to form government there.

In Maharashtra out of the 269 results declared so far, the ruling Congress-NCP combine has bagged 131, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance 87, MNS 13, Republican Left Democratic Front 12 and others 26 in the 288-member House. The alliance requires 144 seats to form a government.