People of Haryana will vote for 90 seats today: 10 points

Along with JJP’s Dushyant Chautala and over 1,000 other candidates, the political fates of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and Vinesh Phogat of the Congress will be determined today when the people of Haryana vote for 90 seats.

1. While the Congress hopes to return in Haryana after ten years, the incumbent BJP is looking for a hat-trick. Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and Azad Samaj Party (ASP) are the other main contenders.

2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJP’s campaign, attending four rallies where he attacked the Congress on a number of subjects including the Ram temple problem, thereby highlighting every item vital for the nation involved.

3. Rahul Gandhi, a Congress politician, also spoke at several public gatherings saying a “Congress storm” is on its way in Haryana and his party will establish the government, which would be one for the poor and farmers, and a “mohabbat ki dukan” will be opened in every section of the state.

4. While the BJP is not contesting the Sirsa seat, from whence Haryana Lokhit Party chairman Gopal Kanda is seeking re-election, the Congress abandoned the Bhiwani assembly seat for its INDIA bloc partner Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M).

5. Most seats are probably going to see a straight confrontation between the Congress and the BJP. Among them are INLD’s Abhay Singh Chautala (Ellenabad), JJP’s Dushyant Chautala (Uchana Kalan), BJP’s Anil Vij (Ambala Cantt), Capt Abhimanyu (Narnaund), OP Dhankar (Badli), AAP’s Anurag Dhanda (Kalayat) and Congress’s Phogat (Julana).

6. While its candidate from Atedi in Mahendragarh is Arti Rao, whose father Rao Inderjit Singh is a Union Minister, the BJP has filed former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s grandson Bhavya Bishnoi from Adampur seat in Hisar. Among the independent contenders are Chitra Sarwara (Ambala Cantt), Ranjit Chautala (Rania) and Savitri Jindal (Hisar).

7. Assuming Dushyant Chautala from Uchana is Brijendra Singh, the son of former Union minister Birender Singh. Additionally competing are a few dissidents from Congress and the BJP. Both cousins, former BJP MP Shruti Choudhry and Anirudh Chaudhary, are running from Tosham seat. From Dabwali, the great grandson of the former Deputy Prime Minister Digvijay Singh Chautala is Aditya Devi Lal, an INLD candidate.

8. The BJP got 40 seats in the recent assembly election in 2019; the Congress got 31 and the JJP 10. While most independents had also backed the BJP then, the party established the government with the help of the JJP. But the JJP’s post-poll tie-off with the BJP broke down when the BJP swapped Manohar Lal Khattar for Nayab Singh Saini as Chief Minister in March.

9. According to Director General of Police Shatrujeet Kapur, the Haryana Police are totally ready to guarantee free, fair, peaceful conduct of elections. Deployed among around 30,000 police officers and 225 paramilitary groups are Men make 1.07 crore of the total voters; women make 95 lakh; and 467 are transgenders. October 8 will see counting of votes.

10. There are 3,283 males and 5,538 women among the 8,821 voters above 100. Service voters in all count 1.09 lakh. Particularly, the voter participation shown in the 2019 assembly elections came out to be around 68%.