80 per cent voting recorded in Ellenabad bypoll in Haryana

Sirsa, October 30

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By-elections for Haryana’s Ellenabad Assembly constituency saw 80 per cent voting as ballots closed on Saturday. 

The resignation of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Chautala in January to protest the Centre’s new farm laws had made by-elections for the seat necessary.

The polling began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.

More than 1.86 lakh voters will decide the fate of 19 candidates, including Chautala, Congress nominee Pawan Beniwal and BJP-JJP candidate Gobind Kanda.

A total of 211 polling booths have been set up and 121 of these have been categorised as “vulnerable” and “most vulnerable”, the officials said.

Tight security arrangements have been made for the bypoll with the deployment of 34 companies of paramilitary forces and police personnel from different districts.

Gobind Kanda, the brother of Haryana Lokhit Party chief and legislator Gopal Kanda, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently.

Beniwal, who had unsuccessfully contested the previous Assembly polls against Chautala, recently switched over from the BJP to the Congress.

Chautala, Beniwal and Kanda are locked in a triangular contest in the Ellenabad bypoll.

Beniwal cast his vote in Darba Kalan village in the morning.

District Election Officer Anish Yadav said polling is going on peacefully, while a Haryana Police official said strict action will be taken against anyone who tries to disturb the ongoing election process and law and order.

The officials said the polling was being conducted according to the COVID-19 guidelines.

Chautala had won the Rori Assembly bypoll in Sirsa district in 2000 and the 2010 bypoll from Ellenabad, when INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala vacated the seat to retain the Uchana seat in Jind district—the other constituency from which he had contested the election in 2009 and won.

In the 2010 bypolls in Ellenabad, Abhay Chautala won the seat and retained it in 2014 too. He again won from Ellenabad in the 2019 Assembly polls, when he was the lone INLD MLA to enter the House.

Winning the bypoll is crucial for Chautala as a loss will deal a body blow to the INLD, which in recent years is reeling under a series of electoral setbacks.

A major part of the Ellenabad Assembly constituency is rural with people mostly relying on agriculture.

The counting of votes will be taken up on November 2, the officials said. — PTI