Chandigarh: Haryana recorded a turnout of 65.10 per cent at 9pm for 90 constituencies in the assembly elections, Election Commission officials said Monday.
Polling began at 7am, ended at 6pm, and was largely peaceful, barring some violent clashes between Congress and BJP supporters in Nuh, officials said.
Going by the voting trend, the final turnout is expected to be lower than the last polls — 76.54 per cent. State chief electoral officer Anurag Aggarwal told The Print he was expecting the number to go beyond 70 per cent.
“In the parliamentary elections held some months ago, the voter percentage was 70.36 per cent,” he said.
Gurugram and Faridabad registered the lowest voter turnout, barely crossing 52.52 per cent and 54.45 per cent respectively. Fatehabad district registered the highest voter turnout at 74.49 per cent, followed by Kaithal at 73.73 per cent.
The Election Commission said 1,169 candidates, including 105 women, contested this election.
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A BJP leader said the low voter turnout signified that voters were looking to continue with the status quo. The party, led by Chief Minister M.L. Khattar, had set a target of winning 75 seats. Currently, the BJP has 48 members in the state assembly.
The BJP had in 2014 beat the Congress, which had in been in power for 10 years.
Led by former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the Congress fought the elections with its back to the wall, hoping anti-incumbency would dent the BJP.
Tight security arrangements were in place with over 75,000 security personnel deployed for the polls, DGP Manoj Yadava said.
Haryana ADGP (law and order) Navdeep Singh Virk said incidents of clashes took place at Nuh, Narnaul and Rohtak. Firing took place at two places and six people were injured. He added that 12 FIRs have been registered.
Over 1.83 crore voters, including 85 lakh women, were eligible to vote. The figure includes over one lakh service voters and 252 transgender people.
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