Hooda, Chautala's fate to be decided tomorrow

The fate of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala and 1,220 other candidates, including 41 women, will be known tomorrow when the counting of votes is taken up amid tight security for the 90-member state assembly.

As part of security arrangements, a three-tier cordoning system, including one at a distance to control crowds and second near the counting centre and last at the venue, has been put in place, Chief Electoral Officer Sajjan Singh said.

He said that cellular phones would not be allowed within and around counting centres or within the area cordoned off by security forces to regulate the entry of persons to counting centres.

The other key contestants include Hooda's ministerial colleagues, Haryana Janhit Congress-BL Chief Kuldeep Bishnoi, INLD secretary general Ajay Chautala, presidents of BJP and BSP units of Haryana Krishan Pal Gujjar and Parkash Bharti.

The state had witnessed multi-cornered contests with the five main parties -- Congress (90), BJP (90), INLD-SAD alliance (90), BSP (86), HJC-BL (87) -- putting up a total of 443 candidates out of a total of 1,222.

About 72 per cent of the 1.31 crore voters in the state had cast their votes during polling last week.

The Congress had returned to power in the 2005 winning 67 seats while INLD won nine, BJP two, BSP and NCP one each and Independents 10.

The strength of the Haryana assembly at the time of polls this time was much different with six seats of Adampur, Kailana, Kalanaur and Rohtak won in 2005 by Congress nominees Bhajan Lal, Jitender Malik, Kartar Devi and Shadi Lal Batra besides Narnaund (Ram Kumar Gautam, BJP) and Ellenabad (Sushil Indora, INLD) being vacant.