Haryana Elections 2024: Can Hooda’s Congress halt BJP's hat-trick run? Voting on Saturday

Haryana Assembly Election 2024: Most seats are likely to witness a direct contest between the Congress and the ruling BJP.

The stage is set for one of the most anticipated electoral contests in the country as 2,03,54,350 voters, including 8,821 centurions, will vote at 20,632 polling booths to elect 90 new legislators and form a new government in Haryana.

Voting for the single-phase Haryana Assembly elections will begin at 7 AM on Saturday, October 5, and conclude at around 6 PM. The counting of votes will be taken up on Tuesday, October 8.

At stake is the fate of 1,031 candidates, including 101 women, and the electoral fortune of the BJP, Congress, JJP and 464 Independents. While Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini would hope to guide the BJP to its third successive government in the state, a resurgent Congress is itching to end its decade-long hiatus from power in the state.

The prominent candidates in fray include CM Saini from Ladwa, Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Hooda from Garhi Sampla-Kiloi, INLD's Abhay Singh Chautala from Ellenabad, JJP's Dushyant Chautala from Uchana Kalan, BJP's Anil Vij from Ambala Cantt, Capt Abhimanyu from Narnaund and OP Dhankar Badli and AAP's Anurag Dhanda from Kalayat.

ALSO READ: Haryana Assembly Election 2024 Live Updates

The election will also test the political prowess of ace Olympic wrestler Vinesh Phogat who is contesting the election from the Julana seat on a Congress ticket after her disqualification from the Gold medal match for being overweight.

The Haryana Campaign
The high-octane campaign for the Haryana elections that drew to a close on Thursday evening saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi lead the way for BJP. The PM addressed four rallies in the state after the BJP’s tally dropped by half (10 in 2019 to 5 in 2024) in the Lok Sabha elections.

In his rallies, Modi took on the Congress on a range of issues and said they kept every matter important for the country entangled, including the Ram temple issue. He also said corruption runs in veins of the Congress and alleged it has "turned into a party of 'dalals' (middlemen) and 'damad' (son-in-law)".

On the other hand, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took the lead for his party after the Lok Sabha polls dealt the BJP a body blow. During his meetings, Rahul claimed that a "Congress storm" is on its way in Haryana and his party would form the government which will be one for the poor and farmers, and a 'mohabbat ki dukan' will be opened in every corner of the state.

Key Contests

The last Assembly elections in 2019 delivered a hung House with the BJP winning 40 seats, the Congress 31 and JJP 10. The BJP and JJP eventually joined hands to form a government with Monhar Lal Khattar as the CM and Dushyant Chautala as the Deputy CM.

This time, the BJP, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party are contesting the election individually while the INLD has tied up with BSP and the JJP has tied up with the Azad Samaj Party. Most seats are likely to see a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress.

The Congress has left the Bhiwani assembly seat for its INDIA bloc partner CPI(M) while the BJP is not contesting the Sirsa seat, from where Haryana Lokhit Party chief Gopal Kanda is seeking re-election.

Among key contests to watch out for are Tosham seat where former MP Shruti Choudhry of BJP and Anirudh Chaudhary, both cousins, are contesting. From Dabwali, Devi Lal's grandson Aditya Devi Lal, an INLD candidate, is taking on JJP's Digvijay Singh Chautala, great grandson of the former deputy prime minister.

The BJP has fielded former chief minister late Bhajan Lal's grandson Bhavya Bishnoi from Adampur segment in Hisar while its nominee from Ateli in Mahendragarh is Arti Rao, whose father Rao Inderjit Singh is a Union Minister.

Taking on Dushyant from Uchana is Congress' Brijendra Singh, son of former Union minister Birender Singh. Among the independent candidates to watch out for are Savitri Jindal (Hisar), Ranjit Chautala (Rania) and Chitra Sarwara (Ambala Cantt).

Tight security cover for polls

The Haryana Police has said it is fully prepared to ensure free, fair and peaceful conduct of elections. Over 30,000 police personnel and 225 paramilitary companies have been deployed and adequate police presence will be maintained at the polling booths and locations.

DGP Shatrujeet Kapur said 3,460 polling booths have been classified as critical, and 138 have been deemed vulnerable, necessitating additional security measures.

As many as 186 interstate and 215 intra-state checkpoints have been established, where police teams will monitor movements closely.

To maintain law and order and ensure compliance with the Model Code of Conduct, the state has also formed 507 flying squads, 464 static surveillance teams, and 32 quick response teams. Additionally, 1,156 patrolling parties are actively monitoring the situation, he said.

What does the Assembly look like now?

The outgoing Assembly has 41 BJP MLAs including the Speaker, Congress 28, JJP 6, Haryana Lokhit Party and Indian National Lok Dal 1 member each, Independents 4, while 9 seats fell vacant.

Among the nine seats, while seven fell vacant as legislators across parties resigned after joining other outfits, Badshahpur seat is vacant after Rakesh Daulatabad, Independent MLA representing the seat died in May while Mulana seat is lying vacant after Congress' Varun Chaudhary, who represented it, fought parliamentary polls and got elected from Ambala.

In 2019, the BJP formed the government with the support of JJP while most Independents had also extended support to it then. However, JJP's post-poll tie-up with the BJP ended after the saffron party replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini as chief minister in March.

The Voter Demographic

Of the total voters, as many as 1.07 crore voters are men, 95.77 lakh are women while 467 are transgenders.There are 5,24,514 voters aged 18 to 19, and 1,49,142 voters with disabilities, out of which 93,545 are male, 55,591 are female, and 6 are transgenders.

A total of 2,31,093 voters are above the age of 85 years, comprising 89,940 males and 1,41,153 females. Additionally, there are 8,821 voters aged over 100, including 3,283 males and 5,538 females. The total number of service voters are 1,09,217, with 1,04,426 males and 4,791 females.

Notably, the voter turnout recorded in 2019 assembly polls was around 68 per cent. As many as 144 polling stations have been designated as model ones.

Apart from this, 115 polling stations will be entirely managed by women staff, 114 by youth employees, and 87 by persons with disabilities employees. Webcasting will be conducted at all polling stations on election day.

He stated that including reserved units, a total of 27,866 Electronic Voting Machines (ballot units) will be used in these elections.

Along with this, 24,719 control units and 26,774 VVPAT machines will be used during the election process. Voters can verify their vote on the VVPAT machine after casting it.

Voter assistance booths will be set up at polling stations, staffed by Booth Level Officers and officers, to assist voters in locating their polling booth number and serial number in the electoral roll.

(With Agencies)