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 state elections in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir have delivered a clear verdict—and raised vexing questions for the leading national parties.

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. The first local elections in India since Mr Modi’s party lost its outright majority in parliament,

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 Haryana election results have taken a dramatic turn, as what seemed like a promising victory for Congress has swiftly turned into unease. The BJP has managed to pull off a hat trick in the state,