Polling officials carrying election materials leave for their respective polling stations on the eve of the Haryana Assembly elections, at a distribution centre in Jhajjar on October 4, 2024. | Photo Credit: ANI

1,031 candidates in fray for Haryana Assembly polls on October 5

While the BJP is looking at a third straight term in office, the Congress is seeking a return to power after a decade

by · The Hindu

An electorate of over 2 crore will decide the fate of 1,031 candidates, including political heavyweights like Congress’s Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Vinesh Phogat and Chief Minister Naib Singh Saini, in the Haryana Assembly election on Saturday (October 5, 2024).

While the BJP is looking at a third straight term in office, the Congress is seeking a return to power after a decade. The key contesting parties are the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and its ally Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) and ally Azad Samaj Party (ASP) (Kanshi Ram).

Counting of votes will take place on October 8.

Voting will be held from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and a total of 20,632 polling booths have been set up for the single-phase election to the 90-member State Assembly.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) said over 30,000 police personnel and 225 paramilitary companies have been deployed while 27,866 Electronic Voting Machines (ballot units) will be used in the election.

A total of 2,03,54,350 voters, including 8,821 above 100 years of age, are eligible to cast votes.

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Of the 1,031 candidates, 101 are women. While 464 are contesting as Independents, 302 candidates are from national parties, 121 from State parties and 144 are from registered unrecognised parties.

According to an analysis by the National Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms, 13% of the candidates have criminal cases against them while 52% are “crorepatis”.

Among candidates of major parties analysed, 85 of 89 (96%) candidates from the BJP; 84 of 89 candidates (94%) from the Congress; 46 of 66 (70%) from the JJP; 34 of 51 (67%) from the INLD; 52 of 88 (59%) from the AAP; and 18 of 35 (51%) from the BSP have declared assets of more than ₹1 crore, the analysis said.

In the 2019 Assembly election, the BJP had won 40 seats, the Congress 31 and JJP 10. The BJP had formed the government with the support of the JJP. Most Independents had also extended support to the BJP. The JJP though ended its post-election tie-up with the BJP after the ruling party replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini as Chief Minister in March this year.

Most of the seats are likely to see a direct fight between the BJP and Congress this time.

As far as seat adjustments are concerned, the Congress has left the Bhiwani seat for its INDIA bloc partner Communist Party Of India (Marxist) while the BJP is not contesting the Sirsa seat, to help Haryana Lokhit Party chief Gopal Kanda.

Published - October 04, 2024 08:29 pm IST