Over 1.62 crore voters in Haryana, assembly poll likely mid-October

Over 1.62 crore voters will be eligible to vote in Haryana's assembly polls to be held next month, a senior official said here Thursday.

State election department sources meanwhile said the elections for the 90 assembly seats are likely to be held by mid-October. The final dates are likely to be announced by the Election Commission of India by next week.

The term of the present assembly ends Oct 27.

Haryana chief electoral officer Shrikant Walgad said there are total 162,60,139 registered voters till July 31. These include 87, 78,288 male voters and 74,81,851 female voters.

He said that 100 percent voter population has been covered with the Electronic Photo Identity Card (EPIC).

In the 2009 assembly polls, the voting percentage was 72.29 while in recent Lok Sabha elections, it was 71.86, Walgad said.

Haryana's total population is nearly 2.54 crore.

Unlike earlier elections where the contest used to be a straight one, mostly between the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), this time the election will be multi-cornered with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Haryana Janhit Congress-Jan Chetna Party alliance and the Bahujan Samaj Party in the fray.

--Indo-Asian News Service

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