Filing of nominations for Haryana assembly polls begins

The process of filing nominations papers for the Haryana Assembly elections commenced today with authorities issuing the poll notification.
Only five Independents filed their nomination papers from four constituencies of Bhiwani, Ballabgarh, Badshahpur and Kosli, an official spokesman said.
The polling in the state is to take place on October 15. About 1.61 Crore voters would cast their votes at 16,244 polling stations.
The last day of filing affidavits would be September 27, scrutiny would take place next day and withdrawals of nominations would end on October 1.
In the last assembly elections, Congress had won 40 seats, INLD 31, BJP 4, HJC-BL 6, SAD and BSP one each and seven seats had gone to Independents.

Though Bhupinder Singh Hooda had failed to lead the Congress to a majority in 2009, the Congress formed the government for the second term with the support of five of the six HJC-BL members and seven Independents.
Haryana is set to witness a multi-corner contest with key players Congress, BJP, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP), BSP, Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC)-Jan Chetna Manch (JCM) alliance all set to cross swords in the battle of ballot.