Haryana votes for 90 assembly seats today, 1,031 candidates in fray
Polling for all the 90 Assembly seats in Haryana began on Saturday morning amid tight security arrangements, officials said.
The fate of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Congress leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Vinesh Phogat, besides the JJP’s Dushyant Chautala and 1,027 other candidates, will be decided in the polls in which more than two crore people are eligible to vote.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is eyeing a hat-trick of Assembly election wins in the state, while the Congress is hoping to return to power after 10 years.
The counting of votes will be taken up on October 8.
The voting is being held from 7 am 6 pm.
Haryana’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pankaj Agarwal had earlier said 2,03,54,350 voters, including 8,821 centurions, are eligible to exercise their franchise.
A total of 1,031 candidates are contesting the election, including 101 women and 464 Independent nominees.
A total of 20,632 polling booths have been set up, Agarwal had said.
Besides the BJP and the Congress, the key contesting parties are the Aam Aadmi PArty (AAP) 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 is not contesting the Sirsa seat, from where Haryana Lokhit Party chief Gopal Kanda is seeking re-election.
Most seats are likely to see a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress.