64.6% vote in Rohtak’s high-stakes battle

Ravinder Saini

Rohtak, May 25

Barring some glitches in the functioning of EVMs, no major incident was reported in the Rohtak parliamentary constituency, where the BJP and the Congress are locked in a direct contest.

Stakes for both parties are high here. The fate of 26 candidates, including BJP’s Dr Arvind Sharma and Congress’s Deepender Hooda was sealed today.

A total 64.6 per cent of voters exercised their franchise in the nine Assembly segments of the constituency. The highest of 69.80 per cent polling was recorded in Meham segment followed by Garhi Sampla-Kiloi (68.7 per cent) and Badli (65.4 per cent). Jhajjar witnessed 65.3 per cent turnout, Beri 64.9 per cent, Kalanaur 64.8 per cent, Kosli 64 per cent, Rohtak 60.8 per cent and Bahadurgarh 59.3 per cent.

Over 10 per cent people cast their votes in the first two hours. The turnout was 38.15 per cent at 1 pm and the polling slowed down due to sweltering heat conditions. The figure rose to 58.28 per cent at 5 pm.

Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Hooda along with his son Deepender and family cast their votes at native Sanghi village while local MLA Bharat Bhushan Batra exercised his franchise in Rohtak city. Arvind Sharma and Jhajjar Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal cast their votes in Jhajjar city.