Haryana Assembly Elections 2024: Haryana is all set to decide the fate of 1,031 candidates including that of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Congress's Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Vinesh Phogat, and JJP's Dushyant Chautala. Beginning at 7 AM on Saturday, over two crore eligible voters will cast ballots as elections will be held to choose the 90-member Haryana assembly. Counting of votes will be held on October 8.
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.
A total of 1,031 candidates, including 101 women are contesting across 90 assembly constituencies. Among these candidates, 464 are contesting 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 be held from 7 AM to 6 PM.
Out of the total voters, 1,07,75,957 are men, 95,77,926 are women, and 467 are transgenders. 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. 1,49,142 voters have disabilities. Out of them 93,545 are male, 55,591 are female, and 6 are transgenders, he said.
Additionally, the total number of service voters are 1,09,217, with 1,04,426 males and 4,791 females.
Earlier today, CM Nayab Singh Saini urged voters to come forward and exercise their franchise. "We should all exercise our franchise in this festival of democracy. We should vote 100%, I would like to appeal this to the people. We should vote in the national interest, in the interest of the state - that the state should go ahead and 'Lotus' should 'bloom'," he said.
Haryana Assembly Elections 2024: Prominent Candidates
The key contesting parties in fray for the Haryana elections are BJP, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, INLD-BSP, and JJP-Azad Samaj Party.
Among the 1,031 candidates, prominent contendors include Chief Minister Saini (Ladwa), Leader of Opposition Hooda (Garhi Sampla-Kiloi), INLD's Abhay Singh Chautala (Ellenabad), JJP's Dushyant Chautala (Uchana Kalan), BJP's Anil Vij (Ambala Cantt), Capt Abhimanyu (Narnaund) and O P Dhankar (Badli), AAP's Anurag Dhanda (Kalayat), and Congress's Phogat (Julana).
Former BJP MP Shruti Choudhry and Anirudh Chaudhary, both cousins, are contesting from Tosham seat. From Dabwali, Devi Lal's grandson and INLD candidate Aditya Devi Lal, is taking on JJP's Digvijay Singh Chautala, who is the great grandson of the former deputy prime minister.
The saffron party has fielded former CM late Bhajan Lal's grandson Bhavya Bishnoi from Adampur segment in Hisar. The party has nominated Arti Rao, whose father Rao Inderjit Singh is a Union Minister, from Ateli in Mahendragarh.
The list of independent candidates include Savitri Jindal (Hisar), Ranjit Chautala (Rania) and Chitra Sarwara (Ambala Cantt). Son of former Union minister Birender Singh, Brijendra Singh, a Congress leader, is taking on Dushyant from Uchana.
A few rebels from both the BJP and the Congress have also entered the fray.
Haryana Assembly Elections 2024: Security And Poll Preparations
Ahead of the polls, DGP Shatrujeet Kapur said the Haryana Police is fully prepared to ensure free, fair, and peaceful conduct of elections on Saturday.
Over 30,000 police personnel and 225 paramilitary companies have been deployed to ensure safety and peace in the state.
A total of 20,632 polling booths have been set up for voting.
Adequate police will be deployed and maintained at all the polling booths and locations. Among the poll booths, 3,460 polling booths have been classified as critical, and 138 have been deemed vulnerable, thereby necessitating increased security measures there.
Around 186 interstate and 215 intra-state checkpoints have been set up, where police teams will regularly monitor all the movements closely.
To ensure compliance with the Model Code of Conduct and maintain law and order during polls, 507 flying squads, 464 static surveillance teams, and 32 quick response teams have been constituted. Additionally, 1,156 patrolling parties are actively monitoring the situation.
As many as 144 polling stations have been designated as model ones. Besides this, 115 polling stations will be entirely managed by women staff, 87 by persons with disabilities employees, and 114 by youth employees. Webcasting will be conducted at all polling stations, CEO Agarwal said.
He added that a total of 27,866 Electronic Voting Machines (ballot units) including reserved units, will be used in the election.
Additionally, 24,719 control units and 26,774 VVPAT machines will be used during the polling. Voters will also be able to verify their vote on the VVPAT machine after casting it.
Voter assistance booths, staffed by Booth Level Officers and officers, will be set up at polling stations. These will assist voters in locating their polling booth number and serial number in the electoral roll.
On security arrangements for polling, Charkhi Dadri SDM Naveen Kumar said: "We are dispatching polling parties today. There are 245 polling booths in the Charkhi Dadri Assembly constituency... All the buses carrying EVMs have GPS installed. The administration has made proper arrangements for the elections to be held peacefully. We have made arrangements for critical booths by deploying special forces there".
Notably, in the 2019 assembly polls, the voter turnout recorded was around 68 per cent.
Haryana Assembly Elections 2024: An Overview Of Campaigning
The high-octane campaign concluded on Thursday evening. The BJP's campaign was spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who attacked the Congress on several issues as he addressed four rallies. He said Congress kept every matter important for the country entangled, including the Ram temple issue.
He also accused Congress of corruption saying that it runs in veins of the party. PM Modi also alleged that the Congress has "turned into a party of 'dalals' (middlemen) and 'damad' (son-in-law)".
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also addressed several public meetings where he stressed that a "Congress storm" is on its way in Haryana, claiming that his party would form the government. He said his government will be one for the poor and farmers, and a 'mohabbat ki dukan' will be opened in every corner of the state.
In the previous assembly elections in 2019, the BJP had won 40 seats, the Congress 31, while the JJP bagged10.
The Congress vacated the Bhiwani assembly seat for its INDIA bloc partner CPI(M). On the other hand, the BJP is not contesting the Sirsa seat, where Haryana Lokhit Party chief Gopal Kanda is seeking re-election.
Most of the seats in the state are likely to witness a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress.
About The Outgoing Haryana Assembly
The strength of ruling BJP members in the outgoing Assembly, was 41 (one seat was won in 2022 Adampur bypolls) including the Speaker. Congress had 28, members, while JJP had six. Haryana Lokhit Party and Indian National Lok Dal had one member each. There were four independents, while nine seats had fallen vacant.
Among the nine seats, seven fell vacant after legislators resigned across parties after joining other outfits. Badshahpur seat is vacant after Independent MLA Rakesh Daulatabad representing the seat, died in May. Mulana seat is lying vacant after Congress' Varun Chaudhary contested parliamentary polls earlier in the year and got elected from Ambala seat.
In 2019, the BJP had formed the government with JJP's support. Most Independents had also extended support to the saffron party then. However, JJP's post-poll alliance with the BJP ended after the party replaced former CM Manohar Lal Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini as the chief minister in March this year.