Counting of votes for the Haryana Assembly election began at 8 am on Thursday and the results will be declared by 5 pm by the Election Commission.
Election to the 90-seat Legislative Assembly of Haryana was held in a single phase on October 21. The voter turnout showed a slump this time with Haryana registering 65 per cent, down from 76.54 per cent in the 2014.
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.
As many 1,168 candidates contested for the 90 seats.Of this, 1,064 are men and 104 are women. One candidate is a Transgender.
The Assembly election witnessed a multi-cornered contest among BJP, Congress, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP).
Prominent among those whose fate will be known on Thursday include Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, former Congress CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, JJP leader Dushyant Chautala and INLD”s Abhay Singh Chautala.
Meanwhile, the exit polls have predicted a huge comeback for BJP in the state bagging more than three-fourth of the 90 assembly seats, with the Congress placed at a distant second.