Both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are keeping their fingers crossed as counting of votes for Haryana assembly elections will take place on Tuesday. The BJP is eyeing a third term in power while the Congress is confident of forming a government in the state after 10 years.
If exit polls are anything to go by, the Congress will sweep the state by bagging majority of seats. BJP state leadership, however, has rejected the pollster’s predictions.
The counting process begins at 8 am. Election officials said all preparations and security arrangements have been completed for the counting. Haryana's Chief Electoral Officer Pankaj Agarwal said a three-tier security arrangements have been made at counting centres.
Kurukshetra Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Jogpal said the EVMs have been stored in four strong rooms within Kurukshetra University, which are under constant surveillance.
“There are four strong rooms inside Kurukshetra University. Only the candidates, their counting agents, and election agents are allowed inside the counting area. No mobile phones, pens, or paper are permitted... Adequate police forces have been deployed around the counting centre and the strong rooms," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
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The single-phase polling for 90-member Haryana Assembly was held peacefully on Saturday with a final voter turnout of 65.65 per cent. The majority mark required for forming the government is 46.
The results of Haryana polls may assume significance for both the BJP and the Congress as the two parties are set to face off in several states, including Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi, which go to polls in next few months. Besides, the BJP and the Congress, other parties in the fray in Haryana included the Aam Aadmi Party, INLD-BSP and JJP-Azad Samaj Party.
Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has dismissed the exit polls and said the BJP will form government for the third term in the state on October 8. He mocked that the Congress will blame the EVMs once the results are announced.
The Congress, meanwhile, is confident of a comfortable majority. The party hopes to wrest back power riding on anti-incumbency, and issues of farmer protests and wrestlers protest.
Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda alleged that law and order had once again "collapsed" under the BJP rule. Hooda is a frontrunner for the chief minister post if the party comes to power.
Issues related to women, youth, farmers and the poor formed the core of respective poll manifestos of the two main contesting parties.
In 2019, the BJP won 40 seats while its ally JJP bagged 10 seats. The Congress managed to secure 31 seats.
