BJP eyes hat-trick, Congress a comeback after a decade as Haryana votes on Saturday

In the previous assembly polls in 2019, BJP had won 40 seats, the Congress 31 and JJP 10

PTI

Chandigarh, Updated At : 07:30 PM Oct 04, 2024 IST

Polling officials check EVMs and VVPATs before leaving for their respective polling stations on the eve of the Haryana Assembly election. Photo: PTI

The fate of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Vinesh Phogat of the Congress besides JJP’s Dushyant Chautala and 1,027 other candidates will be decided on Saturday as elections to the 90-member Haryana assembly will be held with over 2 crore people eligible to vote.

The ruling BJP is eyeing a hat-trick of wins in the state while the Congress is hoping to make a comeback after a decade. Counting of votes will be held on October 8.

Haryana’s Chief Electoral Officer Pankaj Agarwal said 2,03,54,350 voters, including 8,821 centurions, are eligible to exercise their franchise and the voting will be held from 7 am to 6 pm.

A total of 1,031 candidates are contesting in all 90 assembly constituencies, including 101 women. Among these candidates, 464 are contesting as independent.

A total of 20,632 polling booths have been set up for voting, Agarwal said on Friday.

The key contesting parties in the fray are BJP, Congress, AAP, INLD-BSP and JJP-Azad Samaj Party.

The high-octane campaign came to an end Thursday evening. BJP’s campaign was spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who addressed four rallies, where he attacked the Congress on several issues and said they kept every matter important for the country entangled, including the Ram temple issue.

He also said corruption runs in veins of the Congress and alleged it has “turned into a party of ‘dalals’ (middlemen) and ‘damad’ (son-in-law)”.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also addressed many public meetings where he asserted that a “Congress storm” is on its way in Haryana and his party would form the government which will be one for the poor and farmers, and a ‘mohabbat ki dukan’ will be opened in every corner of the state.

In the previous assembly polls in 2019, BJP had won 40 seats, the Congress 31 and JJP 10.

The Congress has left the Bhiwani assembly seat for its INDIA bloc partner CPI(M) while 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 BJP and the Congress.

Prominent among those in fray include Chief Minister Saini (Ladwa), Leader of Opposition Hooda (Garhi Sampla-Kiloi), INLD’s Abhay Singh Chautala (Ellenabad), JJP’s Dushyant Chautala (Uchana Kalan), BJP’s Anil Vij (Ambala Cantt), Capt Abhimanyu (Narnaund) and O P Dhankar (Badli), AAP’s Anurag Dhanda (Kalayat) and Congress’ Phogat (Julana).

From Tosham seat, former MP Shruti Choudhry of BJP and Anirudh Chaudhary, both cousins, are contesting.

From Dabwali, Devi Lal’s grandson Aditya Devi Lal, an INLD candidate, is taking on JJP's Digvijay Singh Chautala, great grandson of the former deputy prime minister.

BJP has fielded former chief minister late Bhajan Lal’s grandson Bhavya Bishnoi from Adampur segment in Hisar while its nominee from Ateli in Mahendragarh is Arti Rao, whose father Rao Inderjit Singh is a Union Minister.

Among the Independent candidates include Savitri Jindal (Hisar), Ranjit Chautala (Rania) and Chitra Sarwara (Ambala Cantt).

Taking on Dushyant from Uchana is Congress’ Brijendra Singh, son of former Union minister Birender Singh.

A few rebels from both the Congress and BJP have also entered the fray.

DGP Shatrujeet Kapur said the Haryana Police is fully prepared to ensure free, fair and peaceful conduct of elections.

Over 30,000 police personnel and 225 paramilitary companies have been deployed.