Polling for all the 90 assembly seats in Haryana began this morning, with the ruling BJP eyeing a third term in the state, and the Congress hoping to make a strong comeback to power after a decade.
The high-stakes battle will see some big names like Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Vinesh Phogat and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP)'s Dushyant Chautala.
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The voting is being held from 7am to 6pm, and the counting will be done on October 8.
In the last assembly polls in 2019, the BJP had won 40 seats, Congress 31 and JJP 10.
Political parties in the fray
Most seats are likely to see a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress. The other key parties are the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Indian National Lok Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party and JJP-Azad Samaj Party alliances.
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BJP is not contesting the Sirsa seat; Haryana Lokhit Party chief Gopal Kanda is seeking re-election from that seat. Meanwhile, the Congress has left the Bhiwani seat for its INDIA bloc partner CPI(M).
Key candidates and constituencies to watch out for
Besides CM Saini who will be contesting from Ladwa, LoP Hooda from Garhi Sampla-Kiloi, and Phogat from Julana, some of the other key candidates are:
JJP's Dushyant Chautala from Uchana Kalan (Congress's Brijendra Singh, son of former Union minister Birender Singh, will becontesting against him)
JJP's Digvijay Singh Chautala from Dabwali (Devi Lal's grandson Aditya Devi Lal, an INLD candidate, is taking him on)
BJP's Bhavya Bishnoi from Adampur in Hisar
BJP's Arti Rao from Ateli in Mahendragarh
INLD's Abhay Singh Chautala from Ellenabad
BJP's Anil Vij from Ambala Cantonment
AAP's Anurag Dhanda from Kalayat
"Captain" Abhimanyu from Narnaund
O.P. Dhankar from Badli
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Tosham seat will see two cousins—former BJP MP Shruti Choudhry and Anirudh Chaudhary—slugging it out. Among the independent candidates are Savitri Jindal (Hisar), Ranjit Chautala (Rania) and Chitra Sarwara (Ambala Cantonment).
Number game in Haryana assembly polls
A total of 1,031 candidates are contesting the polls, including 101 women and 464 independent candidates.
According to Haryana's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pankaj Agarwal, 2,03,54,350 voters are eligible to vote—1,07,75,957 men, 95,77,926 women and 467 belonging to the third gender.
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5,24,514 voters are aged between 18 and 19 years and 1,49,142 differently-abled.
A total of 2,31,093 voters are aged above 85 years.
There are 8,821 voters aged over 100 years.
The total number of service voters is 1,09,217—1,04,426 males and 4,791 females.
A total of 20,632 polling booths have been set up. 3,616 polling booths have been classified as sensitive and 145 vulnerable.
Agarwal said a total of 27,866 EVMs, including reserved units, will be used in this election.
Security arrangements for the polling day
Director General of Police (DGP) Shatrujeet Kapur said nearly 30,000 police personnel and 225 paramilitary companies have been deployed. Home guard personnel too have been deployed.
There will also be 516 flying squads, 469 static-surveillance teams and 32 quick-response teams. 1,156 patrolling parties are monitoring the situation, Kapur added.
The voter turnout in the 2019 assembly polls was around 68 per cent.