Voting for 90 Assembly seats in Haryana began Monday morning, where the BJP is looking for a second term.
Polling which began at 7 am will continue till 6 pm. The counting of votes will be conducted on October 24 along with Maharashtra and the results will be declared on the same day.
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In Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is leading from the front, seeking re-election to the Karnal Assembly seat. The BJP, which won 47 seats in Haryana in the last assembly polls, has this time set a target of more than 75 seats in the state.
Khattar, who is contesting the seat for the second time, is locking horns with former chairman of the Haryana minority commission Tarlochan Singh of the Congress and Tej Bahadur Yadav of the Jannayak Janta Party among 11 candidates.
A total of 19,578 polling stations have been set up in 10,324 locations in the state. 1,83,90,525 voters will exercise their voting rights in the state.
As many 1,168 candidates are in the fray for 90 seats.Of this, 1,064 are men and 104 are women. One candidate is a Transgender.
The Assembly election will witness a multi-cornered contest among BJP, Congress, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP).
While the BJP and the Congress are contesting on all 90 seats, the BSP is in fray on 87 seats, and the INLD on 81 seats. The CPI(M) is contesting on seven seats, CPI on four and NCP on a single seat. There are some 375 candidates contesting as Independents.
In the 2014 Assembly polls in Haryana, the BJP won 47 seats and formed the government in the state for the first time. The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) came second at 19 while the ruling Congress (which ruled the state for two consecutive terms till 2014) managed just 15 seats. Two seats went to the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), and one each to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Five Independents were also elected.
Meanwhile, the BJP has won all the 10 parliamentary seats in Haryana in the Lok Sabha Elections held earlier this year.
Over 75,000 security personnel have been mobilised in Haryana for the smooth conduct of polls.