Mumbai/Chandigarh, October 24: The Election Commission of India (ECI), which is scheduled to declare today the final results of Maharashtra and Haryana assembly polls 2019, has initiated the counting of votes. The early trends were expected to emerge shortly after the counting of votes begin. All major public and private broadcasters are airing the live trends emerging from the counting centres. Stay tuned here for the real-time live updates of election results.

Ahead of the release of official results, the exit polls had predicted a triumphant return of the incumbents in both Haryana and Maharashtra. The aggregate of all major post-election surveys had given the edge to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in both the states.

In Maharashtra, where a total of 288 vidhan sabha constituencies were contested, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance is predicted to win more than 200 seats. The Opposition coalition of Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is expected to be restricted between 60-80 assembly segments.

The BJP, in Haryana, is predicted by most of the surveys to win between 60-75 out of the 90 constituencies. The Congress is expected to exhibit its worst performance in the state ever, with some pollsters claiming that its tally may dip even below the current standing of 15 seats.

A spanner into into the exit poll predictions was thrown by the India Today-Axis My India survey released on Tuesday -- a day after other exit polls were published -- showing the possibility of a hung assembly. The survey predicted 32-44 seats for the BJP, followed by 30-42 for the Congress and 6-10 constituencies for the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP).

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 24, 2019 07:59 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).