Fate of 210 in fray for tomorrow's election in Haryana

The fate of 210 candidates for 10 seats in Haryana, including former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, will be decided by about 1.20 Crore voters in the state during the fourth phase of countrywide polling for the 15th Lok Sabha tomorrow.    

The other key contestants include Union Ministers Selja and Rao Inderjit Singh, both Congress from Ambala SC and Gurgaon respectively, industrialist Navin Jindal (Congress, Kurukshetra), Haryana INLD President Ashok Arora (Kurukshetra), former cricketer Chetan Sharma (BSP, Faridabad) and INLD Secretary General Ajay Singh Chautala (Bhiwani Mahendragarh).    

Three times former Chief Minister 78-year old Bhajan Lal is seeking election from Hissar Lok Sabha constituency on the nomination of Haryana Janhit Congress-BL formed by his son Kuldeep Bishnoi in December 2007. He faces sitting MP Jai Parkash of the ruling Congress.    

The 210 candidates include 14 women and 117 Independents. The four main contenders the ruling Congress, the opposition BJP-INLD alliance, newly formed Haryana Janhit Congress BL and the BSP have put up candidates on all the 10 seats.    

A total of 1.20 Crore voters would cast their votes in the state for which 62,252 security personnel, including those of India Reserve Battalion (IRB) and the state police, have been deployed in the state to ensure peaceful polling.

With a view to facilitating the voters in exercising their right to vote, 12,894 polling stations have been set up, an official spokesman said.He said that care has been taken to ensure that the members belonging to weaker sections of the society fearlessly exercise their right to vote for which 1146 polling stations have been specially set up for such sections of the society.    

He said that 1925 polling stations have been identified as  Sensitive and 1283 as highly sensitive.In Haryana the maximum number of 38 candidates is in fray from Hissar and the lowest number of contestants seven are from Ambala SC.    

The Congress had won nine seats in 2004 and the BJP had won one.