60% vote in 5 Haryana corporations

Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 16

A little over 60 per cent polling was witnessed in elections to five municipal corporations in Haryana today. The turnout for municipal committees was over 80 per cent, taking the overall voting percentage in the polls to 69.39.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s home constituency Karnal witnessed the lowest voter turnout of 61.8 per cent, while Panipat was second at 62 per cent. Rohtak, home district of Khattar as well as former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, saw 62.4 per cent voters exercising their right to franchise, while Hisar witnessed 62.7 per cent and Yamunanagar 65.2 per cent polling.

In contrast, the response was massive in municipal committees of Jakhal (Fatehabad) at 89.5 per cent, and Pundri (Kaithal), where the percentage was 82.1.

Dr Dalip Singh, State Election Commissioner, said the polling was completely peaceful and no complaint of code violation was received. On booking of a candidate’s kin for distributing liquor and beating up of a polling agent at Yamunanagar, he said these were minor incidents. 

The low turnout came as a surprise as it was for the first time that mayoral election was being held directly. In all, 694 candidates were in the fray for the corporator posts, and 59 for mayoral posts. The results will be declared on December 19.