The big picture is clear. With all leads and many results in, the Congress is set to retain power in all three states -- Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal. But it has not been a cakewalk anywhere except Arunachal.
By Thursday afternoon, Congressmen were celebrating, but majority was yet to be had in both Maharashtra and Haryana. In Maharashtra, the Congress-NCP combine seemed to be headed somewhere around the halfway mark of 144 seats. But in Haryana, the party's fortunes fluctuated with every round of counting. The final tally could well be more than a couple of seats short of 45, the halfway mark.
The Congress had expected to have the easiest time in Haryana but it had not accounted for a resurgent INLD, which has made clear it will try a shot at forming government by trying to tap rebels, Independents and BJP MLAs for support.
It will be easier in Maharashtra, where even if the Congress-led combine falls a few seats short in the final accounting, there is a healthy number of Independents and rebels to pick from. The Shiv Sena and the BJP gave up early on Thursday conceding defeat and admitting that the Thackeray split and the rise of the MNS had hit the alliance.
The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance also fell prey to both infighting and an identity crisis, analysts said. And Raj Thackeray's MNS may not become the kingmaker some people thought it would, but it has done well.
Both partners in the ruling combine, meanwhile, have performed well, and the big question already is - who shall be the next chief minister of Maharashtra? Among the front runners are Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and the man he succeeded last December, Vilasrao Deshmukh.
In Arunachal Pradesh, the Congress is heading for a sweep.
By Thursday afternoon, Congressmen were celebrating, but majority was yet to be had in both Maharashtra and Haryana. In Maharashtra, the Congress-NCP combine seemed to be headed somewhere around the halfway mark of 144 seats. But in Haryana, the party's fortunes fluctuated with every round of counting. The final tally could well be more than a couple of seats short of 45, the halfway mark.
The Congress had expected to have the easiest time in Haryana but it had not accounted for a resurgent INLD, which has made clear it will try a shot at forming government by trying to tap rebels, Independents and BJP MLAs for support.
It will be easier in Maharashtra, where even if the Congress-led combine falls a few seats short in the final accounting, there is a healthy number of Independents and rebels to pick from. The Shiv Sena and the BJP gave up early on Thursday conceding defeat and admitting that the Thackeray split and the rise of the MNS had hit the alliance.
The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance also fell prey to both infighting and an identity crisis, analysts said. And Raj Thackeray's MNS may not become the kingmaker some people thought it would, but it has done well.
Both partners in the ruling combine, meanwhile, have performed well, and the big question already is - who shall be the next chief minister of Maharashtra? Among the front runners are Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and the man he succeeded last December, Vilasrao Deshmukh.
In Arunachal Pradesh, the Congress is heading for a sweep.
