Around 80 per cent voter turnout in Ellenabad Assembly bypoll in Haryana

Sirsa (Hry), Oct 30 (PTI) The voting in the bypoll to the Ellenabad Assembly constituency went off peacefully on Saturday, registering an average voter turnout of 80 per cent, which sealed the fate of 19 candidates, officials said.

The polling remained peaceful, they added.

The voting percentage might change as the polling data was still being compiled, the officials said.

The Ellenabad seat had recorded a 83.6 per cent voter turnout in the 2019 Assembly polls.

The polling began at 7 am and continued till 6 pm, the officials said.

The counting of votes will be taken up on November 2.

The bypoll was necessitated by Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Singh Chautala's resignation as the MLA from the seat in January in protest against the Centre's new farm laws.

Nineteen candidates, including Chautala, Pawan Beniwal of the Congress and BJP-JJP nominee Gobind Kanda, were in the fray in Ellenabad, which has more than 1.86 lakh voters.

A total of 211 polling booths were set up and 121 of those were categorised as "sensitive and hyper-sensitive", the officials said.

Tight security arrangements were made for the bypoll as 34 companies of paramilitary forces and police personnel from different districts were deployed.

Gobind Kanda, the brother of Haryana Lokhit Party chief and legislator Gopal Kanda, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently.

Beniwal, who had unsuccessfully contested the previous Assembly polls against Chautala, recently switched over from the BJP to the Congress.

Chautala, Beniwal and Kanda were locked in a triangular contest in the Ellenabad bypoll.

Beniwal cast his vote in Darba Kalan village in the morning.

Talking to reporters, Chautala exuded confidence that he would win with a record margin.

The officials said the polling was conducted according to the COVID-19 guidelines.

Chautala had won the Rori Assembly bypoll in Sirsa district in 2000 and the 2010 bypoll from Ellenabad, when INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala vacated the seat to retain the Uchana seat in Jind district -- the other constituency from which he had contested the election in 2009 and won.

In the 2010 bypolls in Ellenabad, Abhay Chautala won the seat and retained it in 2014 too. He again won from Ellenabad in the 2019 Assembly polls, when he was the lone INLD MLA to enter the House.

Winning the bypoll is crucial for Chautala as a defeat will deal a body blow to the INLD, which in recent years is reeling under a series of electoral setbacks.

A major part of the Ellenabad Assembly constituency is rural with people mostly relying on agriculture.

This was the second bypoll in Haryana within a year.

In November last year, the main opposition Congress had retained the Baroda Assembly seat after its candidate Indu Raj Narwal defeated BJP nominee and Olympian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt.

The Baroda seat in Sonipat district had fallen vacant after the demise of Congress MLA Sri Krishan Hooda. PTI CHS VSD RC