Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headed for a surprise election victory in Haryana state on Tuesday, reinforcing its popularity in the northern heartland a few months after stumbling in national elections.

The BJP is in the lead in the state of Haryana which borders the capital Delhi, but trails in the federal territories of Jammu and Kashmir, which are seeing their first election results in a decade.

India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appeared on course for a surprise win on Tuesday in polls in the northern state of Haryana, but was trailing the opposition in the first elections in a decade in troubled Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir.

The vote share of the BJP and Congress turned out to be close even though the saffron party won the elections with a simple majority. The BJP received 39.94 per cent votes, while the Congress managed 39.

Arjun Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) was leading the Congress candidate Sarv Mitter by a margin of 6,238 votes in Rania constituency. Mitter has secured 34,682 votes after 12 rounds of vote counting,

The exit polls have predicted a hung assembly in the Union Territory. The BJP, which went solo in the election, is likely to win 23 to 27 seats while the Congress-NC alliance is likely to secure 46-50 seats.

On the trends of the Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir elections, BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia stated, "This is a victory for democracy... Today, history is being made as the trends indicate that the BJP will form the government in Haryana for the third time.

The latest leads show that the alliance of the Congress-NC crossing 49 seats as on 10.15 am The 90 seats of Jammu and Kashmir voted in three phases – September 18, 25 and October 1.