Haryana Votes Today for 90 Assembly Seats

Chandigarh: The voting for the Haryana Assembly is continuing on Saturday. This Assembly election will decide the political futures of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Bhupinder Singh Hooda as well as Vinesh Phogat of the Congress and JJP’s Dushyant Chautala.

Over 30,000 police personnel and 225 paramilitary companies have been deployed. Of the total voters, 1.07 crore are men, 95 lakh are women, and 467 are transgenders. Votes will be counted on October 8.

There are 8,821 voters aged over 100, including 3,283 men and 5,538 women.

Over 1000 candidates are contesting in the 90 Assembly seats for which voters are exercising their franchise on Saturday.

The ruling BJP is eyeing a hat-trick. The Congress is trying hard to return to power in the state after a decade. The other key Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and Azad Samaj Party (ASP).

The BJP’s campaign was spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who addressed four rallies, where he attacked the Congress on several issues. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also addressed many public meetings where he said a “Congress storm” is on its way in Haryana.

Most seats are likely to see a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress.

The Congress left the Bhiwani assembly seat for its INDIA bloc partner Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), while the BJP is not contesting the Sirsa seat, from where Haryana Lokhit Party chief Gopal Kanda is seeking re-election.

Prominent leaders in the 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 OP Dhankar (Badli), AAP’s Anurag Dhanda (Kalayat) and Congress’s Phogat (Julana).

In the last assembly election in 2019, the BJP won 40 seats, the Congress 31 and the JJP 10. The BJP formed the government with the support of the JJP and support of most independents. The JJP broke the post-poll tie-up with the BJP after the BJP replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini as Chief Minister in March.