Voting for the high-stakes Baroda assembly seat in Sonipat district of Haryana will be held on Tuesday with the ruling BJP-JJP taking on the Congress in a direct fight in which the INLD and an independent pose an interesting challenge to the main candidates.
A total of 1.81 lakh eligible voters will decide the fate of 14 candidates, including wrestler and BJP candidate Yogeshwar Dutt, who are in the fray. Polling will be held from 7 am till 6 pm, officials said on Monday. The counting will be held on November 10.
The Baroda seat fell vacant in April after the demise of Congress MLA Shri Krishan Hooda, who had won the seat in 2009, 2014 and 2019 assembly polls.
“All the arrangements have been made for the bypoll,” Gohana Sub-divisional Magistrate Ashish Kumar said. Voters will be screened through thermal scanners at each polling booth, the official said, adding that social distancing would be ensured at the polling stations as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus pandemic.
Hand sanitisers, masks and gloves will be available at polling stations, which will be sanitised. Besides, PPE (personal protective equipment) kits, gloves and sanitisers have been arranged for the polling staff, the official added.
As many as 280 polling booths have been set up and 151 of them categorised as vulnerable. Security personnel, including three companies of paramilitary forces, have been deployed to ensure peaceful by-elections, the official said.
There are a total 1,80,529 voters, out of which 99,726 are men, 80,801 women and two transgenders, the official said.
While BJP repeatedly raised the development plank, the main opposition Congress attacked the ruling party for neglecting the rural constituency.
Apart from wrestler-turned-politician Yogeshwar Dutt of the BJP, who is backed by saffron ally JJP, former Zila Parishad member Indu Raj Narwal of the Congress is also in the fray. Indian National Lok Dal has fielded Joginder Singh Malik.
Seven Independents and four candidates belonging to other parties, including former Kurukshetra MP Raj Kumar Saini who heads the Loktantra Suraksha Party, are in fray from the constituency. The results will be out on November 10.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, JJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala campaigned for the ruling BJP, while former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, state Congress chief Kumari Selja, senior leaders Kiran Choudhary and Deepender Singh Hooda sought votes for Congress candidate.
INLD president O P Chautala and Abhay Chautala campaigned for their party candidate. The BJP leaders, including state party chief O P Dhankar, and the ally JJP leaders sought votes on the development plank.
With the Congress playing up the Centre’s new farm laws issue in the primarily agrarian constituency, Khattar during the poll campaign accused the opposition party of “misleading” farmers by telling them the agriculture-related legislations would lead to dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system and said he would quit politics if that were to happen.
The bypoll has become a battle of prestige for former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda as the seat, a Jat-dominated constituency, lies close to his own Garhi-Sampla Kiloi seat in Rohtak, and is considered as his stronghold. During the campaigning, Hooda hit out at the BJP-led government, accusing it of alleged failure on all fronts and neglecting the constituency for six years of their rule in the state.
The bypoll is equally important for INLD, which had slumped to its worst ever performance when the party could win only one out of 90 seats in the 2019 assembly polls. INLD senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala has claimed that development has eluded the Baroda segment for the last 15 years under the Congress and later the BJP rule.
BJP had won 40 of the 90 assembly seats in 2019 and later formed the government with JJP’s support, which had won 10 seats. A win in Baroda will take the saffron party’s tally to 41 while if Congress wins, its tally will remain unchanged at 31 as the seat was held by Shri Krishan Hooda. INLD’s strength will rise to two if they win the seat.