Opinion polls of 9.53 pct. registered in the first two hours while voting was underway in Haryana

Top leaders in the fray include CM Saini, Congress leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Vinesh Phogat, and JJP’s Dushyant Chautala.

A total of 1,027 candidates are participating in the elections.

The Congress hopes to return to power after a decade by dethroning the BJP.

The voting, which started at 7am, will end at 6pm, while the counting of votes will take place on October 8.

According to the Election Commission data, an overall polling percentage of 9.53 percent was recorded till 9am.

In Jind, the poll percentage was recorded at 12.71 percent, 11.10 in Karnal, 10.76 percent in Rohtak, while in Gurgaon and Panchkula it was 6.10 percent and 4.08 percent.

Saini, who is contesting from Ladwa in Kurukshetra, cast his vote in his native village Mirza in Ambala’s Naraingarh district.

Former Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar cast his vote in Karnal while Manu Bhaker along with her parents cast her vote in Goria village of Jhajjar district.

Before casting his vote, Saini prayed at Guru Ravida’s temple and a gurdwara.

Saini later told reporters, “The mood of the people of Haryana is clear: the BJP is going to form a government for the third time with a big mandate.”

Manu Bhaker, the Paris Olympic double medalist, appealed to the people, especially the youth, to come out and cast their votes.

The 22-year-old athlete cast her vote for the very first time, said her father Ram Kishan Bhaker.

Among other early voters who exercised their franchise included BJP’s Kuldeep Bishnoi and JJP’s Dushyant Chautala.

Meanwhile, Haryana party candidate Jan Sevak from Meham constituency Balraj Kundu accused former MLA Anand Singh Dangi of tearing his clothes and beating up his assistant at a polling booth.

Kundu, the sitting MLA from Meham Assembly seat, alleged that Dangi was “upset” after sensing the defeat of his son and Congress candidate Balram Dangi.

In a video message, Kundu said he was at polling booth number 134 near the bus stand when Dangi tore his clothes and pushed him. “My PA has been beaten up,” he further alleged.

According to Pankaj Agarwal, Chief Electoral Officer of Haryana, 2,03,54,350 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the elections. The electorate consists of 8,821 centenarians – 3,283 men and 5,538 women.

Of the total number of candidates, 101 are women, while 464 are independent.

A total of 20,632 polling booths have been set up in the state, Agarwal said.

Besides the BJP and Congress, the main warring parties are the Aam Aadmi Party and the INLD-BSP and JJP-Azad Samaj party alliances.

In the last Assembly elections of 2019, the BJP had won 40 seats, the Congress 31 and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) 10.

The Congress has vacated the Bhiwani seat for its INDIA block partner CPI(M), while the BJP has made way in Sirsa for Haryana Lokhit Party chief Gopal Kanda, who is seeking re-election.

From Tosham, former MPs Shruti Choudhry of the BJP and Anirudh Chaudhary of the Congress are pitted against each other.

From Dabwali, Devi Lal’s grandson Aditya Devi Lal, an INLD candidate, will take on JJP’s Digvijay Singh Chautala, the former deputy prime minister’s great-grandson.

The BJP has fielded former chief minister late Bhajan Lal’s grandson Bhavya Bishnoi from Adampur in Hisar, while Ateli’s nominee in Mahendragarh is Arti Rao, whose father Rao Inderjit Singh is a Union minister.

Savitri Jindal (Hisar), Ranjit Chautala (Rania) and Chitra Sarwara (Ambala Cantonment) are contesting as independents.

Brijendra Singh of Congress is pitted against Dushyant Chautala of Uchana, son of former Union minister Birender Singh.

A few rebels from both the Congress and the BJP are also involved in the fray.

To ensure peaceful voting, 225 companies of the Central Armed Forces have been deployed across the state, besides the deployment of Haryana Police forces.

Of the total voters, 1,07,75,957 are male, 95,77,926 are female and 467 belong to the third gender.

There are 5,24,514 voters between the ages of 18 and 19 and 1,49,142 persons with disabilities, of whom 93,545 are men, 55,591 women and six belong to the third gender.

The total number of service voters is 1,09,217 – 1,04,426 men and 4,791 women.

Turnout in the 2019 elections was approximately 68 percent.

A total of 115 polling stations will be managed by women, 114 by young government officials and 87 by workers with disabilities.

In 2019, the BJP formed the government with the support of the JJP, while most independent MLAs had also extended support to the saffron party. However, the partnership between the JJP and the BJP ended after the latter replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with Saini as chief minister in March.