BJP MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal reached a polling station in his constituency, Kurukshetra, on a horse to cast his vote for the Haryana Assembly elections on Saturday. Jindal met his supporters at the polling station and clicked pictures with them. He quit the Congress and joined the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in March. Jindal had said that he wanted to contribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's agenda of 'Viksit Bharat'.
His mother, Savitri Jindal, who is the chairperson of the O P Jindal Group and India's richest woman, 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. After the death of Om Prakash Jindal in a 2005 helicopter crash, Savitri entered politics, winning the Hisar by-poll and serving as a minister in the Hooda government.
In August, Forbes ranked her as the wealthiest woman in India, with the Jindal Group valued at $39.5 billion. BJP has made health minister Dr Kamal Gupta its candidate from Hisar, who is MLA from this constituency for two consecutive terms. "I am not angry with the BJP. The decision taken by the senior leaders of the party should be accepted and it is very good," Savitri Jindal had said.
The other key candidates contesting the high-stakes battle are Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, former Home Minister Anil Vij, former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Dushyant Chautala, Vinesh Phogat, and Kavita Dalal.
Approximately 2.03 crore voters will decide the fate of 1,031 candidates across the state's 90 Assembly constituencies.
A total of 20,632 polling booths have been set up, with 3,460 marked as critical and 138 as vulnerable. To ensure a peaceful election process, over 30,000 police personnel and 225 paramilitary companies have been deployed, alongside 186 interstate and 215 intra-state checkpoints.