Haryana decides today
Multi-cornered fight in some of the 90 segments in the state; ruling BJP, Congress in direct contest on most seats
CHANDIGARH: Polling for 90 assembly seat in Haryana will take place on Monday amid heightened security. The results will be declared on October 24. The new state legislature will have to be constituted by November 2. Over 1.83 crore voters, including 85 lakh women and 252 of the third gender, will have an opportunity to elect their representatives on Monday.
The ruling BJP is striving for a second consecutive term while the Congress, decimated in the Lok Sabha polls, is looking at a recovery. The newly formed Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Loktantra Surkasha Party (LSP) of former BJP MP Rajkumar Saini, the Swaraj Party of Yogender Yadav and certain Independents, including the BJP and Congress rebels, have made this election a multi-cornered contest in many constituencies.
The BJP and the Congress, however, seem to be in a direct fight on majority of the assembly seats with the JJP and some BJP and Congress rebels contesting as Independents, making a triangular or four-cornered contest in some. The high-voltage poll campaign of the BJP saw participation of a galaxy of leaders led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who addressed seven rallies, BJP national president Amit Shah and defence minister Rajnath Singh, several Union Ministers and party MPS, as it continued aggressively to raise the nationalism plank by focusing on scrapping of Article 370 provisions on special status to J&K and targeted the opposition on national security and corruption. The Congress on the other hand looked devoid of firepower in terms of participation of central leaders in poll campaigning. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi addressed two poll rallies in the state.
Prominent among those in the contest are chief minister ML Khattar from Karnal, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda from Garhi Sampla-kiloi, Randeep Singh Surjewala from Kaithal, Kiran Choudhry from Tosham, Kuldeep Bishnoi from Adampur, Dushyant Chautala from Uchana Kalan, Capt Abhimanyu from Narnaund, Subhash Barala from Tohana, OP Dhankar from Badli and Anil Vij from Ambala Cantt.
The BJP has fielded three Olympians Babita Phogat from Dadri, Yogeshwar Dutt from Baroda in Sonepat and Sandeep Singh from Pehowa in Kurukshetra, besides Tiktok artist Sonali Phogat from Adampur.
Haryana director general of police Manoj Yadava said more than 75,000 security personnel have been mobilised for the election duty.
Additional director general of police (law and order) Navdeep Virk said that about 12,000 Central Armed Police Force personnel (130 companies) have been deployed across the state. In addition, over 26,000 state police personnel, about 22,000 home guard volunteers, about 8,000 special police officers and 6,000 police trainees were also on poll duty to ensure tight vigil at all 19,758 polling stations in the state.
Virk said that 21 senior police officers along with additional forces were also deputed in different districts over and above those posted in districts to deal with any law and order situation. “Monitoring has been intensified by the flying squads and surveillance teams to prevent distribution of cash, liquor and other inducements. As part of the confidence-building measure, security forces have also conducted flag marches,’’ the ADGP said.
DGP Yadava said that neighbouring states would also deploy heavy force in their territory to ensure sealing of inter-state borders. Chief electoral officer (CEO) Anurag Aggarwal said 19,578 polling stations, including 19,425 regular and 153 auxiliary polling stations, have been set up. The EC has also made provisions for live broadcasting of poll proceedings at 3,100 critical and vulnerable polling stations.
Aggarwal said there are 5,741 polling stations in urban areas and 13,837 in rural areas. A total of 29,400 ballot units, 24,899 control units, and 27,611 VVPAT machines will be used for the assembly election.