High poll percentage marks voting in Chandigarh, Haryana

Haryana and capital city Chandigarh witnessed a high voter turnout on Thursday, amid largely peaceful polling.

Haryana, where the electorate voted for 10 parliamentary seats, witnessed nearly 74 per cent voter turnout. In the previous election, the turnout was 67.4 per cent.
Chandigarh too registered a high voter turnout—that of 75 per cent—up 10 per cent since last elections.

In Chandigarh, Congress candidate and former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal cast his vote along with members of his family.

He is pitted against three women in the four-pronged contest: the BJP's Kirron Kher, the AAP’s Gul Panag and the BSP’s Jannat Jahan-ul-Haq.

Kher's father Colonel (retd) Thakar Singh, one of the oldest voters in Chandigarh at 101 years of age, also exercised his franchise.

Kher and AAP candidate Panag did not cast their votes as they are not registered as voters in Chandigarh.

Youth and first-time voters in Chandigarh—declared model city by the Election Commission—came out in large numbers to cast their votes.

It was dull start in Haryana and Chandigarh, but eventually picked up towards the end.
Officials say the voter turnout could increase even further once the tabulation of data concludes.

Haryana chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s son Deepender, the Congress candidate from Rohtak, could not cast his vote as he is on complete bed rest in New Delhi, suffering from severe back pain due to a slipped disk.

The fate of prominent candidates in the poll fray in Haryana, including that of Naveen Jindal in Kurukshetra, Haryana Janhit Congress chief Kuldeep Bishnoi in Hisar, AAP leader and Gurgaon candidate Yogendra Yadav, Dushyant Chautala in Sirsa and the Congress’ Rohtak candidate Deepender Singh Hooda,  is now sealed for verdict on May 16, when the results will be announced.

The polling was not without incident. There were reports from Kalayat in Haryana of a media team being threatened by workers of a political party.
DH News Service