Haryana polls: Panchkula records 56.3% voting till 5pm

There are two assembly segments in Panchkula district – Kalka and Panchkula. Till 3pm, Kalka assembly constituency recorded 51.7%, while Panchkula recorded 40.6% polling.

Panchkula Congress candidate Chander Mohan, BJP nominee Gian Chand Gupta and Aam Aadmi Party’s Prem Garg were among early voters as polling got underway on Saturday.

Panchkula BJP candidate Gian Chand Gupta after casting his vote in Sector 17 on Saturday. (Sant Arora/HT)

Accompanied with their families, Chander Mohan cast his vote in Sector 10, while Gupta voted in Sector 17 and Garg in Sector 9, Panchkula.

Minor glitches were reported in EVMs at two polling stations in Panchkula’s Sector 20 which were rectified and voting began at 7.15am there.

Tension prevailed in Sector 17 as Congress and BJP supporters roughed up each other. According to sources, when Congress candidate Chander Mohan’s wife Seema Bishnoi reached a polling booth in Sector 17, BJP workers raised slogans of “Jai Shree Ram” to which Congress workers responded with “Congress zindabad” and “Chander Mohan zindabad” slogans. Seema Bishnoi intervened to ease the situation.

BJP candidate Gupta is a resident of Sector 17, Panchkula.

Panchkula Congress candidate Chander Mohan Bishnoi and his family members after exercising their franchise on Saturday. (Sant Arora/HT)

There are two assembly segments in Panchkula district – Kalka and Panchkula. Till 5pm, Kalka assembly constituency recorded 61.3%, while Panchkula recorded 52% polling. Till 5pm, Panchkula district recorded 56.3% polling.

There are 4.38 lakh voters in Panchkula district, including 2.29 lakh men, 2.08 women and 23 third gender.

Kalka Congress candidate Pradeep Chaudhary and his wife after casting their vote in Sector 3, Panchkula, on Saturday. (Sant Arora/HT)

Speaking to reporters after voting, BJP’s Gupta urged voters to exercise their franchise and strengthen democracy. “I’m hopeful that the people of Panchkula will again give me a chance to serve them and we will score a hat-trick...The Congress and Bhupinder Singh Hooda have left no stone unturned in insulting Kumari Selja,” he said, adding “Ashok Tanwar’s joining the Congress (on the last day of campaigning) is the party’s internal politics. Hooda got Tanwar to return to the party to insult Kumari Selja.”

Aam Aadmi Party’s Panchkula nominee, Prem Garg, showing his inked finger after voting on Saturday. (Sant Arora/HT)

Over two crore people are eligible to vote in the Haryana assembly elections, which will decide whether the BJP will hold on to power for the third time or the Congress will return to power after a decade.

Voting in Haryana is being held from 7am to 6 pm. 1,031 candidates are contesting in all 90 assembly constituencies, and 20,632 polling booths have been set up for voting.

The results will be declared along with those of Jammu and Kashmir on October 8.