Voting to elect new legislators began at 7 AM in all 90 Assembly seats in the Haryana elections, the first big test for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Opposition Congress after they levelled at 5 seats each in the Lok Sabha elections. As of 11 AM, the voter turnout was recorded at 22.7 percent, according to the Election Commission of India.
At stake is a second possible term for incumbent Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and a third straight term for the BJP which has been in power in the state since 2014. On the other hand, a resurgent Congress under the leadership of Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, which brought down the BJP's tally by half in the general elections, is hoping to upset the BJP's calculations and end its decade-long hiatus from power. Over 2 crore people are eleigible to cast their franchise for the elections, the results to which will be declared on Tuesday, October 8.
Key Parties and Candidates
The 2019 Assembly elections delivered a hung House in Haryana 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. The key parties in the fray this time include the BJP, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party -- all of whom are contesting the elections on their own.
Also in the fray are mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party which has tied up with Abhay Chautala's INLD, and the regional heavyweight Jannayak Janata Party of Dushant Chautala which has joined hands with the Chandrashekhar Azad's Azad Samaj Party. There are also a significant number of Independents, including some rebeles from the BJP and Congress who are trying their luck this time. A total of 464 Independent candidates are in the fray in this election.
Key Seats, Candidates and Contests
Prominent candidates in the fray include Chief Minister Saini from Ladwa, Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh 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, Captain Abhimanyu from Narnaund, and OP Dhankar from Badli, AAP's Anurag Dhanda from Kalayat and Congress's Vinesh Phogat from the Julana Assembly seat.
The fight between dynasts is another dimension at play in the Haryana elections this time which also marks the political debut of Arti Rao, daughter of Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh.
Direct contests in four key seats include Brijendra Singh - Dushyant Chautala in Uchana Kalan, Shruti Chaudhary - Anirudh Chaudhary in Tosham, Arjun Chautala - Ranjeet Chautala in Rania, Digvijay Chautala - Aditya Chautala - Amit Sihag in Dabwali.
Other dynasts testing their claim to political legacy include Bhavya Bishnoi, grandson of Bhajan Lal who is contesting from Adampur and Arti Rao is in fray from Ateli. Similarly, former MP Shruti Choudhry of BJP and Anirudh Chaudhary, both cousins, are contesting from the Tosham seat.
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 also 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.
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