Press Trust of India / Chandigarh Oct 13, 2009, 11:27 IST
Nearly ten per cent electorate cast their votes during the first three hours of polling to elect 90 MLAs in Haryana.
"The polling is going on smoothly and people are gradually coming out to cast their votes. The poll percentage has touched around 10 per cent by 10 a.M.," Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana, Sajjan Singh said.
He said a group clash and some firing incident has taken place in Nemkhera village in Mewat district, "but this was not close to the polling booth".
Among the early voters were Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who exercised his franchise in his native Sanghi village in Rohtak district.
INLD Secretary General and Dabwali candidate Ajay Chautala, Kiran Choudhry of Congress, Savitri Jindal besides former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal and his son and Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) chief Kuldeep Bishnoi are prominent among others who have cast their votes.
More than 1.31 crore eligible voters, including 59 lakh women, will decide the fate of 1,222 candidates including 67 women who are in fray for 90 Assembly seats in the state.
As many as 13,524 polling stations have been set up across the state and among them 3,214 have been identified as vulnerable, the officials said.
The major parties in the fray include Congress, BJP, Indian National Lok Dal, BSP and Haryana Janhit Congress. Shiromani Akali Dal is contesting on two seats in the state.
After casting his vote, a confident Hooda told reporters that the ruling Congress would "once again get majority and form the government. There is a wave in our favour and we will make a clean sweep".
"The Congress will win with a big margin and people will vote for development. Our Government has got support of all sections of the society," he said.
A lot of enthusiasm among voters was seen at Hooda's Sanghi village, where a large number of women also turned out to cast their votes.
96-year-old Shanti Devi was among the oldest citizens to exercise her franchise in the village.
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