Haryana Polls: High-Stakes Battle Between BJP & Congress Begins; CM Saini, Vinesh Phogat In Fray

The last Assembly elections took place in October 2019, which resulted in a hung assembly, with no major party achieving a clear majority.

The polling has begun to elect the 90-member legislative assembly in Haryana, where over 1,000 candidates are in the fray including Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Congress's Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Olympic wrestler Vinesh Phogat and India's richest woman Savitri Jindal. The ruling BJP is eyeing a hat-trick of wins in the state while the Congress is hoping to make a comeback after a decade. 

Savitri Jindal, the chairperson of the OP Jindal Group, is contesting the elections as an Independent candidate. Her assets are declared at over Rs 270 crore, making her the second wealthiest candidate in the race. 

As many as 464 candidates are contesting the polls as independents. Haryana's Chief Electoral Officer Pankaj Agarwal said 2,03,54,350 voters, including 8,821 centurions, are eligible to exercise their franchise. The voting will end at 6 PM and the votes will be counted on October 4.
 
The key contesting parties in Haryana include BJP, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), as well as the pre-poll alliance between Indian National Lok Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party (INLD-BSP) and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP)-Azad Samaj Party (ASP).

2019 Haryana Assembly Elections 

The last Assembly elections took place in October 2019, which resulted in a hung assembly, with no major party achieving a clear majority. The BJP secured 40 seats, followed by Congress (31 seats). The JJP managed 10 seats, while the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) obtained only one seat. The remaining eight seats were won by independent candidates and smaller parties.

The BJP formed an alliance with the JJP, leading to Manohar Lal Khattar serving as Chief Minister. However, this coalition collapsed in March of this year, prompting Khattar's resignation. On the same day, Nayab Singh Saini took the oath as Chief Minister and has been leading a minority government since May 2024, when three independent legislators withdrew their support.

Out of the total voters who will cast their votes today, 1,07,75,957 are men, 95,77,926 are women, and 467 are transgenders. As many as 5,24,514 voters are aged 18 to 19, while there are 8,821 voters aged over 100, including 3,283 males and 5,538 females.

A total of 2,31,093 voters are above the age of 85 years, including 89,940 males and 1,41,153 females. As many as 1,49,142 voters have disabilities. Out of them 93,545 are male, 55,591 are female, and six are transgenders.