22.70 pc polling recorded till 11 am in Haryana assembly polls

CHANDIGARH: Over 22 per cent polling was recorded in the first four hours of voting in the Haryana assembly election on Saturday.

Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Union minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker were among the early voters.

Leader of Opposition in the assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Congress leaders Kumari Selja and Randeep Singh Surjewala also cast their votes in the early hours of polling.

Saini, Hooda, Olympic wrestler Vinesh Phogat and the JJP's Dushyant Chautala are among the top names in the fray. A total of 1,027 candidates are contesting the election.

The Congress is hoping to return to power in the state after a gap of 10 years.

Voting began at 7 am and will conclude at 6 pm. The counting of votes will be taken up on October 8.

According to the Election Commission data, the overall poll percentage was 22.70 till 11 am.

Among the districts, Ambala recorded a poll percentage of 25.50, Bhiwani 23.45, Charkhi Dadri 20.10, Faridabad 20.39, Fatehabad 24.73, Gurugram 17.05, Hisar 24.69, Jhajjar 23.48, Jind 27.20, Kaithal 22.21, Karnal 24.85, Kurukshetra 23.90, Mewat 25.65, Palwal 27.94, Panipat 22.62, Rewari 21.49, Rohtak 22.91 and Sonipat 18.84.

Voting was comparatively slow in Panchkula at 13.46 per cent.

Saini, who is contesting from Ladwa in Kurukshetra, cast his vote in his native village Mirza in Ambala district's Naraingarh.

Former Haryana chief minister Khattar cast his vote in Karnal, while Manu Bhaker and her parents cast their ballots in Jhajjar district's Goria village.

Before he cast his vote, Saini prayed at the Guru Ravidas temple and a gurdwara.

Speaking to reporters later, he said: "The mood of the people of Haryana is clear, the BJP is going to form the government for the third time with a big mandate."

Paris Olympic double-medallist Bhaker appealed to the people, especially the younger ones, to come out and cast their votes.

The 22-year-old athlete voted for the first-ever time, her father Ram Kishan Bhaker said.

Among other early voters were the BJP's Kuldeep Bishnoi and the JJP's Dushyant Chautala.

Meanwhile, the Haryana Jan Sevak Party nominee from the Meham constituency Balraj Kundu accused former MLA Anand Singh Dangi of assaulting him and his assistant at a polling booth.

Kundu, the sitting MLA from the seat, claimed that Dangi was "rattled" as he had sensed the impending defeat of his son and Congress candidate Balram Dangi.

In a video message, Kundu claimed that Dangi ripped his clothes and pushed him at polling booth number 134. "My PA has been beaten up," he alleged.

According to Haryana's Chief Electoral Officer Pankaj Agarwal, 2,03,54,350 voters, are eligible to exercise their franchise in the election.

Of the total candidates, 101 are women, while 464 are Independents.

A total of 20,632 polling booths have been set up across the state, Agarwal said.

Besides the BJP and the Congress, the key parties are the Aam Aadmi Party, the INLD-BSP combine and the JJP-Azad Samaj Party alliance.

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 has made way in Sirsa for Haryana Lokhit Party chief Gopal Kanda, who is seeking re-election.

From Tosham, former MP Shruti Choudhry of the BJP and the Congress Anirudh Chaudhary are pitted against each other. They are cousins.

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

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

Savitri Jindal (Hisar), Ranjit Chautala (Rania) and Chitra Sarwara (Ambala Cantonment) are contesting as Independent.

Taking on Dushyant Chautala from Uchana is the Congress's Brijendra Singh, son of former Union minister Birender Singh.

A few rebels from both the Congress and the BJP are also in the fray.

To ensure peaceful voting, 225 companies of Central Armed Police Forces have been deployed across the state, in addition to forces of the Haryana Police.

The total number of service voters in Haryana is 1,09,217 -- 1,04,426 males and 4,791 females.

The voter turnout recorded in the 2019 Assembly polls was around 68 per cent.

In all, 115 polling stations will be managed by women, 114 by young government employees and 87 by PwD employees.

In 2019, the BJP formed the government with the support of the JJP, while most of the Independent MLAs had also backed the saffron party.

However, the JJP's post-poll tie-up with the BJP ended after the latter replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with Saini as the chief minister in March.