New Delhi: Elections for the 90-member Haryana Assembly began on Saturday. Over 2 crore people are eligible to vote. The fate of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and wrestler Vinesh Phogat, along with JJP’s Dushyant Chautala and 1,027 other candidates, will be decided.
A voter turnout of 9.5% was recorded at 9 am.
The ruling BJP aims for a hat-trick of wins in the state, while the Congress hopes to make a comeback after a decade. The counting of votes is scheduled for October 8.
A total of 1,031 candidates are contesting across all 90 assembly constituencies, including 101 women, with 464 running as independents. Haryana’s Chief Electoral Officer, Pankaj Agarwal, had said that 20,632 polling booths had been set up for voting.
The key parties in the contest include the BJP, Congress, AAP, INLD-BSP, and the JJP-Azad Samaj Party.
The BJP’s campaign was spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who addressed four rallies.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also addressed many public meetings where he said 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.
Meanwhile, BJP MP Naveen Jindal reached a polling station in Kurukshetra on a horse to cast his vote.
#WATCH | Haryana: BJP MP Naveen Jindal reaches a polling station in Kurukshetra on a horse, to cast his vote for the Haryana Assembly elections. pic.twitter.com/cIIyKHXg0n
— ANI (@ANI) October 5, 2024
