Chandigarh, Oct 22 (IANS) The ruling Congress in Haryana Thursday inched towards a simple majority in the 90-member assembly as thousands of votes cast in the assembly elections were counted across the state.
Counting trends from all 90 centres indicated that the Congress would return to power but not as comfortably as party leaders were expecting it to.
The Congress was hovering at the half-way mark of 45 seats by midday, some four hours the vote count started.
The Congress won 67 seats in the February 2005 elections.
The main opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) fared better than expected, leading in nearly 25 seats. The INLD had won only nine seats in 2005.
Counting of votes began Thursday morning to pick a new 90-member Haryana assembly. There were 1,222 candidates, including 68 women, in the fray. The balloting took place Oct 13.