"Result is surprising for us": Congress' Bhupinder Hooda as BJP consolidates victory in Haryana

Rohtak (Haryana) [India], October 8 (ANI): As the BJP is on the verge of forming a consecutive third-term government in Haryana, former Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that the assembly results are "surprising" for them.
"We have lost many seats by a small margin. We have received complaints from many places and we will meet the Election Commission. The result is surprising for us..." Hooda said.
The Congress has already rejected Haryana assembly results which showed that BJP is poised to form its third successive government in the state, saying the outcome is "totally unexpected, completely surprising, counter-intuitive and against ground reality and that "it is not possible" for the party "to accept the results."
Reacting to the division among the INDIA bloc, Bhupinder Singh Hooda while speaking to reporters, said that they offered seats to the Aam Aadmi Party but an alliance wasn't formed.
"We never talked to the Samajwadi Party about the alliance. CPM asked us and we gave them the seat (of Bhiwani). We offered seats to Aam Aadmi Party but it (alliance) did not happen..."
Hooda further reacted to the alleged division within Congress and said that the party is 'united'.
He said, "Congress is united. You can see the BJP, Anil Vij did not come out of his house, and Ram Bilas Sharma's ticket was cut. In a democratic party, 'matbhed' (difference of opinion) can be there but there is no 'manbhed' (difference of thought). Maintaining coordination is everybody's work.... We have got complaints about the batteries of the EVM, somewhere, it was 99 per cent while it was 70 per cent somewhere.
He dismissed the caste-based division of politics of Jat and Non-Jat and said, "There is no such thing. Congress has an ideology of 'Naa Jaat Pe Na Paat Pe, Muhar Lagegi Haath Pe'.
The Congress is set to finish a distant second in the assembly polls and is slated to win 37 seats with BJP poised to win 48 seats in the 90-member Haryana assembly.
Earlier today, addressing a press conference on the results in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, party leaders Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera said they have received "very serious complaints" on the process of counting and they will move the Election Commission.
Jairam Ramesh said "what we have seen today in Haryana is a victory for manipulation, a victory for subverting the will of the people and it is a defeat for transparent democratic processes"
"The results in Haryana are totally unexpected, completely surprising and counter-intuitive. It goes against ground reality. It goes against what the people of Haryana had made their minds up for, which was for change and transformation. I think under these circumstances, it is not possible for us to accept the results that have been announced today," he said.
Proving wrong predictions of exit polls, BJP is poised for its biggest victory in Haryana polls with the Hindi heartland state seemingly turning into one of its bastions. The Congress, which was seen to be having advantage of anti-incumbency and was seen to be ahead in the perception battle, fumbled again.
BJP leaders said that it was "pro-incumbency" for their government in Haryana based on the work it had done in the past 10 years.
Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who won from Ladwa, greeted BJP workers and leaders at his residence in Kurukshetra following party's impressive performance in the polls.
"I want to thank the 2.80 crore people of Haryana for putting a stamp on the works of BJP for the third time. All this is only because of PM Modi. Under his leadership, we are moving forward. He spoke to me and gave his blessings. I had faith that the poor, farmers and the youth of Haryana would bless me," he said. (ANI)