Not just majority, Congress also loses vote share in Haryana

If Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his party were taken aback by the fact that the elections did not prove a cakewalk in Haryana, they would be even more sobered by the fact that Congress has lost a huge chunk of votes compared to 2005, 7.4% to be precise.
What is perhaps even more surprising is that the main opposition party, Om Prakash Chautala's INLD has also lost vote share, though not to the same extent.Its share has dropped from 26.8% in 2005 to 25.8% this time. That, as much as the division of opposition votes explains why the Congress still managed to get as close as it has to a majority in the state assembly.
The BJP, which decided to go it alone, also saw its votes declining from 10.4% to 9%. What that means is that even if the INLD and the BJP had tied up, the Congress would still have been marginally ahead in vote share even assuming that the alliance arithmetic worked perfectly, which it rarely does. It might have been a completely different story when it come to seats though.
Former CM Bhajan Lal's Haryana Janhit Congress would have mixed feelings about the outcome. While the six seats it has won puts the party ahead of BJP in the assembly, its vote share is a bit lower at 7.4%. While HJC was on the whole more likely to cut into Congress vote than anybody else's, it does seem to have prevented a sizeable chunk of anti-incumbency votes from going to Chautala's camp, thereby allowing Hooda a chance of hanging in there.
The party that has undoubtedly received the rudest shock in Haryana, however, is the BSP. Less than six months ago, the elephant had signaled a major entry into the state when it won 15.7% of the votes in the Lok Sabha polls.