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After a 15-year gap, BJP appeared set to stage an impressive comeback in Haryana as it was leading on seven seats and its ally the HJC-BL on one, even as ruling Congress was facing a rout with five of its sitting MPs trailing.
Barring the seat of Rohtak, from where two-time MP Deepinder Singh Hooda had earned an unassailable lead of over one lakh votes over his nearest BJP rival O P Dhankar, the Congress was trailing on the remaining nine seats in Haryana.
Five of the Congress' sitting MPs in Haryana including State unit chief Ashok Tanwar (Sirsa-SC), Naveen Jindal (Kurukshetra), Arvind Sharma (Karnal), Shruti Choudhary (Bhiwani-Mahendergarh) and Avtar Singh Bhadana (Faridabad) were trailing.
In Kurukshetra, Raj Kumar Saini of the BJP was ahead over nearest rival Balbir Singh Saini of the INLD by a margin of 67,773 votes while Jindal was at number three spot.
From Sirsa (SC) constituency, Charanjit Singh Rori of the INLD was leading over his nearest rival sitting MP Ashok Tanwar by a margin of 29,720 votes.
From Hisar, the sitting MP of the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL), an ally of the BJP, Kuldeep Bishnoi, son of former Chief Minister late Bhajan Lal, was leading over his nearest rival and greenhorn Dushyant Chautala of the INLD by a margin of 6,673 votes, as per the trends available around noon.
From Gurgaon, former Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh, who switched over to BJP from Congress before the polls, was ahead over his nearest rival Zakir Husain of the INLD by a margin of 23,881 votes.
In 1999, when BJP had a tie-up with INLD led by former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, they had won five seats each.
In 2014, the BJP had fought the parliamentary elections jointly with HJC-BL.
The INLD and the new entrant AAP had also put up its candidates on all the ten seats this time.
If Congress loses on nine seats, it would be its worst defeat since 1999, as in 2004 and 2009, the party had won on nine out of ten seats in the state.
Elections to the 10 parliamentary seats in Haryana were held on April 10.
In 2009, Congress had won nine seats and Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) one.
