Haryana saw 65.66% voter turnout till 10pm as per provisional figures provided by the Voter Turnout app of the Election Commission of India — lower than the 2014 assembly election turnout of 76% — as the fates of 1,169 candidates including 105 women were sealed in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) on Monday. There were reports of sporadic clashes and allegations of booth capturing from the state.
The Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Agarwal said at a press conference held in Chandigarh that a live webcast from polling stations was fed to a control room headquartered in Chandigarh, and a Communication App allowed persons to contact election officers to share information.
The Congress is hoping to make a comeback even as chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had set a target of 75 out of the 90 seats in the state legislative assembly.
The ruling BJP is locked in a multi-cornered contest with the Congress, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), and the fledgling Jannayak Janta Party, which broke away from the INLD in 2018 and contested its first state elections. The outgoing assembly has 48 BJP MLAs, while the Congress has 15 MLAs and the OP Chautala-led INLD has 19 legislators. The BJP had won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the recent election.
Haryana has over 1.83 crore voters, including 85 lakh women and 252 transgender persons.
Prominent among those in the contest are Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar (Karnal), former chief minister and Congress Legislative Party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Garhi Sampla-Kiloi), Randeep Singh Surjewala (Kaithal), Kiran Choudhary (Tosham) and Kuldeep Bishnoi (Adampur) and JJP’s Dushyant Chautala (Uchana Kalan).
The BJP has fielded three sportspersons — Babita Phogat (Dadri), Yogeshwar Dutt (Baroda in Sonipat) and Sandeep Singh (Pehowa) — besides TikTok star Sonali Phogat (Adampur).
Over 75,000 security personnel were deployed in the state’s 19,578 polling stations. Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order, Navdeep Virk said 12 poll related first information reports (FIRs) were registered on Monday. “There were two incidents of firing in Nuh district and seven persons were injured. There were no casualty,’’ Virk said. He said minor incidents of clashes were reported from Rohtak, Nuh and Narnaul.
Tension prevailed in Dumer Khan village in Jind under Uchana Kalan assembly seat after JJP founder and candidate from the seat Dushyant Chautala alleged that he was attacked by unidentified persons. Chautala is locked in a tough contest with BJP candidate Prem Lata, wife of former Union Minister Birender Singh. Her son Brijendra Singh is the BJP MP from Hisar parliamentary constituency, under which Uchana Kalan falls.
Chautala told mediapersons that a BJP agent allegedly tried to hurl a glass at him. He also made a complaint about bogus polling to the Deputy Commissioner Aditya Dahiya and SP Ashwin Shenvi. After the complaint, additional police force was deployed in the constituency.
The Rohtak police registered a first information report (FIR) against an aide of state co-operation minister, Manish Grover. Papan Gulia, a councillor and his brother Babal, were booked for booth capturing at booth number 69 in Rohtak assembly constituency, from where Grover is contesting as a BJP candidate.
The complaint was filed by a Congress worker Virender. DSP (headquarters), Rohtak Gorakhpal Rana said they have arrested the councilor and efforts were on to nab his brother also.
In Mewat region adjoining Gurgaon district, a woman was injured as a clash took place between two groups outside a polling booth in Malaaka village in Nuh district, a senior police official said.
An argument broke out between the present Sarpanch and a former Sarpanch after which their supporters clashed. Nuh’s Superintendent of Police, Sangeeta Kalia said stones were also hurled due to which one woman was injured. “The polling process was not hampered,” the SP told news agency PTI.
The results for Monday’s polls will be declared on October 24.
