Haryana turnout tanks to 62% from 76.54% in 2014
CHANDIGARH: Haryana recorded a turnout of 62 per cent at the close of polling for 90 constituencies in the assembly elections on Monday, officials said.
Polling that began at 7 am and ended at 6pm was largely peaceful, barring one violent incident in Nuh, officials said.
According to the Election Commission, 62 per cent of the registered voters had exercised their franchise by 6pm, when polls closed.
However, people who had entered the polling booths before the stipulated closing time will be allowed to cast their vote, officials said. The figure of 62 per cent turnout is provisional, and may rise slightly. The final figure will be available when the data is tabulated, officials said.
The Haryana voting percentage was 76.54 per cent in the 2014 assembly elections and 70.36 in this year’s Lok Sabha elections.
The Election Commission said 1,169 candidates, including 105 women, contested this election.
The BJP, led by chief minister ML Khattar, is aiming to retain power in Haryana, and had set a target of winning 75 seats.
Currently, the BJP has 48 members in the state assembly. Haryana’s Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Agarwal said 19,578 polling stations were set up, 13,837 of them in rural areas.
Tight security arrangements were in place with over 75,000 security personnel deployed for the polls, DGP Manoj Yadava said earlier.
More than 40,000 Haryana Police personnel, over 13,000 paramilitary personnel and more than 20,000 Home Guards and Special Police Officers have been deployed for conducting the elections in the state.
Meanwhile, JJP leader Dushyant Chautala levelled allegation of “bogus voting” in connivance with a police official at a booth in Dumerkha Kalan village of the
Uchana Kalan assembly constituency here on Monday.
Dushyant Chautala (31), a former MP from Hisar, is in the fray from Uchana Kalan and contesting against sitting BJP MLA Prem Lata, who is the wife of former Union Minister Birender Singh. Chautala said when he objected to it, an attempt was made to hurl a glass at him by some persons. “When I said a woman’s vote was cast in a bogus manner, five to six persons tried to hurl a glass at me. I have complained to the returning officer concerned about the police official and others,” Jannayak Janata Party leader told reporters here, demanding that repolling be held at the booth. A district poll official said they would examine the complaint given by Chautala. The JJP is fighting the polls in Haryana on its own.
A clash was reported from Nuh district in Mewat region. A woman was injured in the clash which took place between two groups outside a polling booth in Malaaka village, a senior police official said. Nuh SP Sangeeta Kalia said some argument broke out between the present sarpanch and a former sarpanch after which some of their supporters accompanying them clashed and pelted each other with stones. “However, the polling process was not hampered and the situation is peaceful now,” the SP said.
Over 1.83 crore voters, including 85 lakh women, were eligible to vote. The figure includes over one lakh service voters and 252 transgender people.
In an attempt to encourage women voters’ participation in the polls, the Election Commision had set up pink polling booths, also called Sakhi booths with an all-women staff at many places. Earlier in the morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to come out in large numbers to cast their vote and “enrich the festival of democracy”.