Over 70% voting turnout in Haryana civic polls

Polling for the elections to Haryana’s 28 municipal committees and 18 municipal councils was held on 19 June and over 70% of the voter exercised their franchise during the elections. The polling started at 7 am and ended at 6 pm. Amid this, several incidents of bogus polling were reported across the state which resulted in clashes between the contestants along with their supporters. Although, the State EC had made elaborate security arrangements and apart from a few incidents of clashes and according to reports, the voting has remained peaceful. The counting of votes will take place on 22 June.

As per the state EC, polling was recorded 32.3% by 12 am to be followed by 44.4% and 58% by 1 pm and 3.17 pm respectively. the long queue of the voters were reported waiting for their turn to exercise their franchise.  Over the charges of bogus voting, a string of clashes broke out in different districts namely Palwal, Fatehabad, Sonipat and Rewari which resulted in injuries to several voters and others. In this series, it is pertinent to mention that six people of both factions were injured in Kuslipur village falling in Palwal districts while four voters including a woman were also injured in Gannaur over an incident of bogus voting. Amid the tight security arrangements, the voting started and the final statistics issued by around 7 pm revealed that Gurugram and the Rewari emerged on the top in terms of maximum voter turnout. It is pertinent to mention that as many as 84.6 per cent and 79.3 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise to be followed by the Yamunanagr, Rohtak, and Fatehabad with 78.2%, 77.5% and 77.3% respectively.  The Chief Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh said, excluding a few incidents, the election was entirely peaceful as sufficient arrangements were made for smooth conduct of the elections. He said that an adequate police force was deployed to maintain law and order at the polling stations, sensitive, and hyper-sensitive areas. As per the information provided by the Haryana EC, 1,290 polling booths have been set up for the municipal elections, out of which 289 are sensitive and 235 are hyper-sensitive polling booths. 6,450 polling staff, 82 duty magistrates and 7,087 police officers and employees have been appointed. There are 456 wards of 18 municipal councils and 185 candidates are in the fray for the post of the president including 85 females. 15 councillors have been elected unanimously out of 456 wards, while 1,797 candidates are contesting in the remaining 441 wards. 1,076 are male and 721 are female. There are 12.6 lakh voters in 18 municipal councils and 5.7 lakh voters in 28 municipalities. The BJP and its ally are contesting jointly on their party symbol while the Congress has opted out not to contest the battle without the party symbol.