Hisar, May 8
A day after polling concluded, the four main contenders for the Hisar Lok Sabha seat spent the day meeting their workers, discussing polling trends and attending marriages.

Former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, HJC candidate, woke up early as usual. After a frugal breakfast, he visited the local Panchayat Bhawan to inspect arrangements for security of EVMs stored there.

He returned to his residence in Sector 15 here where a large numbers of party workers had gathered. He discussed polling trends in different villages of the nine Assembly segments which comprise the Hisar Lok Sabha seat.

His wife Jasma Devi was performing a havan inside and as it concluded she sent baskets of bananas as prasad which was distributed among all present. Bhajan Lal then left for nearby villages to attend three marriages.

His neighbour and NDA candidate Sampat Singh woke up an hour later than usual today. After breakfast, he too met hundreds of party workers who had toiled during the three-week-long campaigning, discussing polling statistics. His wife Krishna, meanwhile, was busy performing a havan inside the house which, Sampat Singh said, was part of a daily routine. In the afternoon, he fulfilled certain pressing social engagements.

Congress candidate Jai Parkash too met his party workers and took stock of the polling. He also had closed-door discussions with his close associates. Later, he left for Jind to meet family members.

BSP candidate Ram Dayal Goyal spent a lot of time in his election office. He inspected accounts of poll expenses and cleared the payments. He said he would rest only after the counting of votes on May 16.

Sirsa: Candidates of various parties contesting the Sirsa seat on Friday spent the day after polling by relaxing, meeting people, settling pending accounts and making calculations that could take them through to victory in the election.

Indian Youth Congress chief and Congress candidate for the Sirsa seat Ashok Tanwar spent the day meeting people and discussing the positives and negatives of yesterday’s poll.

Sita Ram, INLD candidate, said he would relax today before going to Ganganagar in the evening to attend a marriage.

Rajinder Dhanak, HJC candidate, was clearing accounts of parties, who had supplied material during the election process in his election office on Friday.

Sonepat: After days of hectic electioneering, candidates on Friday spent their time relaxing and assessing the situation by meeting party workers.

Congress candidate Jitender Malik, who is contesting his first Lok Sabha election, remained in his house till noon where he greeted the party workers who had come here from various segments of the constituency. Malik later went on a round of the constituency and also met some party men in Safidon.

BJP stalwart Kishan Singh Sangwan, who had been seeking votes to return to the Lok Sabha for the fourth consecutive term, remained busy expressing gratitude to party workers, especially those of the alliance partner INLD for the support extending by them.

BSP candidate Dev Raj Devan started his day early and went straight to his office to hold meetings with his supporters from Kharkhoda and the Gohana Assembly constituency.

Karnal: After toiling hard in the scorching sun and dust for about a month, candidates and their supporters were in a relaxed mood on Friday. However, it was a day of calculations and assessments with tension and anxiety writ large on their faces.

The post-poll atmosphere was similar at the residences of Congress candidate Arvind Sharma, ID Swami of the BJP and Varinder Maratha of the BSP with enthusiastic workers reassuring them that they had already won and the declaration of the result was a mere formality.

Arvind Sharma, who was surrounded by a large number of supporters at his residence, said there was no change in his routine; people were coming as before right from the wee hours of the day and he was spending time with them.

ID Swami of the BJP also had the same story to tell. A large number of supporters had gathered at his place and the discussion focused on voting trends in different areas and counting.

Varinder Maratha of the BSP had a larger number of supporters at his place, each one of them predicting Maratha’s victory. The impact of the voter turnout, caste combinations were some of the factors being debated by the supporters with Maratha just nodding his head in affirmation.

Ambala: Candidates for the Ambala seat on Friday spent their day meeting party workers. However, BSP candidate Chanderpal relaxed with his phone switched off. Party sources said he was happy with the turnout and was confident of winning.

Sitting MP and Union Minister Selja, meanwhile, chose to head back to New Delhi and left Ambala around noon. She was busy meeting party people all day yesterday and today before she left.

BJP-INLD candidate Rattan Lal Kataria spent the day meeting well-wishers.

Rohtak: With polling over, it was a major relief for all candidates from the hectic LS poll campaign.

Congress candidate Deepender Singh Hooda was not available for his comments. According to sources, Deepender was out of station since this morning.

For INLD-BJP candidate Nafe Singh Rathi, Friday was hardly different, as he woke up at his usual time. Talking to The Tribune, he said though he was feeling relaxed physically, he was upset with the alleged irregularities during the polling on Thursday.

He said he had registered a complaint with the election authorities about the alleged rigging and boothcapturing by Congress party workers.

HJC candidate Krishan Murti Hooda is also upset with the polling yesterday. He has alleged that the polling was not free and fair as a majority of the booths had been “captured” by the ruling party and bogus votes were polled openly.

Gurgaon: After a long hectic schedule due to the poll season, candidates of various parties preferred to take rest on Friday.

BSP candidate from Gurgaon constituency Zakir Hussian preferred to enjoy the day with his family.

Congress candidate Rao Inderjeet Singh chose to meet party workers instead of resting.

BJP-INLD candidate Sudha Yadav also visited her office in the morning to meet people and took rest in the evening. HJC candidate Rao Narbir was not available for comments.

Faridabad: A day after poll the main candidates in the fray in the Faridabad parliamentary constituency remained in a state of political animation.

Although, the election offices of the candidates of Avtar Singh Bhadana, who was re-renominated by the Congress, Ramchander Bainda (BJP), Chander Bhatia (HJC-BL) and Chetan Sharma (BS) presented a forlorn look on Friday, most candidates in their state of consciousness and semi-consciousness kept thinking and analysing the voting pattern and the possible outcome.

Bhadana was conspicuous by his absence.

Meanwhile, according to the president of the Faridabad district unit of the BJP, Gopal Sharma, Bainda met hundreds of party workers from various parts of the constituency and spent his time getting feedback on the voting pattern.

Chandigarh, May 8
The overall voter turnout in all 10 parliamentary constituencies of Haryana yesterday has been recorded at 67.94 per cent, 2.25 per cent more than that recorded in 2004.

According to the data released by the election office, 69.42 per cent men and 66.17 per cent women voters cast their votes.

The Kurukshetra parliamentary constituency recorded the highest turnout in the state, where 75.29 per cent voters exercised their franchise.

Sirsa and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh ranked second and third with 75.01 per cent and 72.53 per cent, respectively. In Hisar of the total 11,88,065 voters, 8,28,246 voters cast their votes, which include 4,57,928 men voters and 3,70,318 women voters. Men voter turnout in the constituency was recorded at 70.55 per cent and that of women 68.71 per cent.

In Sonepat, out of 10,92,972 voters, 7,12,035 voters cast their votes, which accounted for 65.15 per cent of the total voters.

The voter turnout in Gurgaon has been recorded at 61.12 per cent. In Faridabad, the overall vote percentage stood at 56.81 per cent.

Karnal recorded a voter turnout of 66.86 per cent. Ambala recorded an overall vote percentage of 68.95 per cent.

Rohtak has a total of 12,54,272 electors, of which 8,35,538 voters - 4,68,014 men and 3,67,524 women - exercised their franchise. The overall vote percentage in the constituency was 66.62 per cent. 

Fatehabad, May 8
The police today arrested the principal, a teacher and an attendant of a private school at Ratia town for causing death by alleged negligence after a child died due to illness and the parents and relatives of the child blocked traffic alleging negligence of the school staff demanding their arrests.

Indu Sharma, principal, Monika, class teacher, and Rustam, in charge of First Aid in the Akal Academy, a CBSE affiliated school in Ratia town were booked by the police under Sections 304-A and 34 of the IPC, were later produced before a local court, where they were released on bail.

Rajdeep, a student of class two died of cerebral fever on Wednesday.

His kin from Khumber village alleged that the kid fell ill in the school on Tuesday but the school principal, class teacher and the first aid attendant did not provide any treatment to the child.

They alleged that the school authorities should have informed the parents of the kid’s illness but they did not care to do so.

The child fell unconscious after reaching home in the evening and was rushed to Hisar for treatment, where he died.

Some local residents and kin of the child held demonstration outside the school and blocked the Ratia-Fatehabad road demanding arrest of the accused.

Jasbir Singh, father of the victim, alleged that the school authorities did not provide any first aid to the boy though he informed them of his illness. Nor did they inform him of his child’s illness, he alleged.

Principal Indu Sharma, however, denied the allegations and said the boy was alright till he was in the school. She also denied that the child had complained of fever before his teacher.

She rather said that the parents should not have sent Rajdeep to the school, if they knew of his illness.