Chandigarh: Polling for 90 Assembly seats in Haryana began Saturday morning amid tight security, with Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker among the early voters.
Top leaders in the fray are CM Saini, Congress leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Vinesh Phogat, and JJP’s Dushyant Chautala.
In all, 1,027 candidates are contesting the election.
The Congress is hoping to return to power after 10 years by dethroning the BJP.
The voting, which began at 7am, will conclude at 6 pm, while the counting of votes will be taken up October 8.
Saini, who is contesting from Ladwa in Kurukshetra, cast his vote in his native village, Mirza, in Ambala district’s Naraingarh.
Former Haryana chief minister ML Khattar cast his vote in Karnal, while Manu Bhaker along with her parents, cast their ballots in Goria village in Jhajjar district.
Before he cast his vote, Saini prayed at Guru Ravidas temple and a gurdwara. Saini later told reporters, “The mood of the people of Haryana is clear, the BJP is going to form government for the third time with a big mandate.”
Paris Olympic double-medallist Manu Bhaker appealed to the people, especially the younger ones, to come out and cast their votes. The 22-year-old athlete cast her vote for the first-ever time, her father Ram Kishan Bhaker said.
According to Haryana’s Chief Electoral Officer Pankaj Agarwal, 2,03,54,350 voters, are eligible to exercise their franchise in the election. The electorate includes 8,821 centenarians — 3,283 male and 5,538 female.
Of the total candidates, 101 are women, while 464 are Independent.
Agarwal said that a total of 20,632 polling booths have been set up across the state.
Besides the BJP and the Congress, the key contesting parties are the Aam Aadmi Party and the INLD-BSP and JJP-Azad Samaj Party alliances.
In the last Assembly polls in 2019, the BJP had won 40 seats, the Congress 31 and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) 10.
The Congress has left the Bhiwani seat for its INDIA bloc partner CPI(M), while the BJP has made way in Sirsa for Haryana Lokhit Party chief Gopal Kanda, who is seeking re-election.
Leader of Opposition BS Hooda (Garhi Sampla-Kiloi), Indian National Lok Dal’s Abhay Singh Chautala (Ellenabad), JJP’s Dushyant Chautala (Uchana Kalan), BJP’s Anil Vij (Ambala Cantonment), “Captain” Abhimanyu (Narnaund) and O P Dhankar (Badli), AAP’s Anurag Dhanda (Kalayat), and Congress’s Phogat, a former wrestler from Julana, are some of the more prominent candidates duking it out.
From Tosham, cousins former MP Shruti Choudhry of the BJP and Congress’s Anirudh Chaudhary are pitted against each other.
From Dabwali, Devi Lal’s grandson Aditya Devi Lal, an INLD candidate, is taking on the JJP’s Digvijay Singh Chautala, the great-grandson of the former deputy prime minister.
The BJP has fielded former chief minister late Bhajan Lal’s grandson Bhavya Bishnoi from Adampur in Hisar, while its nominee from Ateli in Mahendragarh is Arti Rao, whose father Rao Inderjit Singh is a Union minister.
Savitri Jindal (Hisar), Ranjit Chautala (Rania) and Chitra Sarwara (Ambala Cantonment) are contesting as Independent.
Taking on Dushyant Chautala from Uchana is the Congress’s Brijendra Singh, son of former Union minister Birender Singh.
A few rebels from both the Congress and the BJP are also in the fray.
Director General of Police Shatrujeet Kapur on Friday said Haryana Police is committed to ensuring a free, fair, and peaceful election.
To ensure peaceful voting, 225 companies of Central Armed Police Forces have been deployed across the state, in addition to the deployment of the forces from Haryana Police.
Of the total voters, 1,07,75,957 are men, 95,77,926 are women, and 467 belong to the third gender.
There are 5,24,514 voters aged between 18 and 19 years, and 1,49,142 persons with disability, of whom 93,545 are male, 55,591 are female and six belong to the third gender.
The total number of service voters is 1,09,217 — 1,04,426 males and 4,791 females.
Polling stations will be monitored through webcasting at three levels.
CEO Agarwal said control rooms have been set up at the state, district, and assembly levels to ensure smooth monitoring during the election.
The voter turnout recorded in the 2019 Assembly polls was around 68 per cent.
A total of 144 polling stations have been designated as “model” polling stations.
In all, 115 polling stations will be managed by women, 114 by young government employees and 87 by persons with disability employees.
In 2019, the BJP formed the government with the support of the JJP, while most of the Independent MLAs had also extended support to the saffron party. However, the JJP’s post-poll tie-up with the BJP ended after the latter replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with Saini as the chief minister in March.
PTI