Polling for Maharshtra, Haryana, Rajkot West today

Ahmedabad, 15 October 2014

Polling for Maharashtra and Haryana general assembly elections and Rajkot West seat bypoll in Gujarat will be held today.

Voting will start from 7.00 am. Counting of votes will take place on 19 October.

Haryana

Over 1.63 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise as all 90 assembly seats in Haryana go to polls Wednesday.

Balloting will be held at 16,357 centres between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.

There are 1,351 candidates in the fray, including a record 109 women. Most constituencies are witnessing multi-cornered contests this time.

“Over 1.63 crore voters will exercise their right to vote to elect their representatives. All arrangements have been made for smooth conduct of the election process,” the state’s Chief Electoral Officer Shrikant Walgad said Tuesday.

There would be about 70,000 polling officials and over 50,000 security personnel, including 80 companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), stationed across Haryana for the election, Walgad said.

He urged voters to exercise their franchise “without fear or greed”.

The main contest is between the ruling Congress, the main opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP is going alone for the first time in the state in this election.

Others in the fray include the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), the newly floated Haryana Jan Chetna Party (HJCP), Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP), and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

The Congress, led by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, is seeking a third term in office. Hooda has been chief minister since March 2005. His second term started November 2009.

In most constituencies, the contest this time is multi-cornered instead of the straight contests between the Congress and INLD earlier.

Elections are also being held for 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra Wednesday.

Maharshtra

For the first time in decades, five mainstream parties are in the fray, besides many smaller parties and hordes of independents, all hoping to cash in on the voter sentiments.

Voting is scheduled between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., and counting will be taken up Oct 19 from 8 a.m. onwards, with the results expected by noon.

With an unprecedented over 4,000 candidates in the fray, the 8.25 crore voters are spoilt for choice in all the 288 assembly constituencies – and in Beed, the lone Lok Sabha constituency going for a by-poll.

They comprise the candidates from the main parties like Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

There are other parties too, like Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, MIM (of Hyderabad), and scores of smaller parties, hundreds of rebels, independents and some casual candidates.

These include a generous dose of those with a criminal past, millionaires and paupers, semi-literates or illiterates, as well as relatives of political leaders.

Rajkot West

Rajkot 69 bypoll involves 265 polling stations, 2,91,136 voters who are all present in photo identity rolls. Polling will take place in 88 buildings that have 265 booths. Polling staff’s strength is over 1600.Live webcasting has been arranged at 64 booths. 90 observers are on duty. 48 zonal officers are given sectoral magistrate power. 27 booths are described as sensitive. Main contest is between BJP’s Vijay Rupani and Congress’s Jayantibhai Kalaria.