Lok Sabha election results: 90 centres designated for counting in Haryana

Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Agarwal said Monday the counting of votes polled for the state's 10 Lok Sabha seats and in the Karnal Assembly by-election will commence at 8 am on June 4 across 90 designated centres.

Comprehensive arrangements have been made to ensure smooth counting, he said.

The Election Commission of India has appointed counting observers for all counting centres to supervise the process following the commission's instructions, Agarwal said.

Haryana this time recorded a voter turnout of 64.80 per cent in the Lok Sabha polls about five percentage points lower than the 70 per cent recorded in 2019.

Polling for all 10 Lok Sabha seats and the Karnal assembly constituency was held in the sixth phase of the general election on May 25.

For the Lok Sabha seats, 223 candidates, including former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Union ministers Rao Inderjit Singh and Krishan Pal Gurjar and Congress stalwarts Kumari Selja and Deepender Singh Hooda, were in the fray.

Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini contested the by-election for the Karnal assembly seat.

In the 2019 general election, the BJP swept Haryana, winning all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

This time, Union ministers Rao Inderjit Singh and Krishan Pal Gurjar and Congress heavyweights Kumari Selja and Deepender Singh Hooda are in the fray for the Lok Sabha polls.

Chief Minister Saini, who is the state BJP chief and outgoing MP from Kurukshetra, was sworn in as the chief minister on March 12, replacing Manohar Lal Khattar.

Khattar's resignation as MLA from Karnal had necessitated the by-election. Khattar was fielded by the BJP from the Karnal parliamentary seat.

Prominent names among those in the fray for the Lok Sabha seats include Ranjit Singh Chautala, an Independent MLA who had joined the BJP ahead of the polls.

Chautala entered the fray from Hisar against two members of the Chautala clan -- the JJP's Naina Chautala and the INLD's Sunaina Chautala. Besides, former Congress MP Jai Prakash is also in the fray from the seat.

The Congress' INDIA bloc partner Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) contested from Kurukshetra, where it fielded its state unit chief Sushil Gupta against the BJP's Naveen Jindal and the Indian National Lok Dal's Abhay Singh Chautala in a triangular battle.

Union ministers Inderjit Singh and Gurjar are seeking re-election from the Gurugram and Faridabad parliamentary seats, respectively. From Gurugram, the Congress fielded its senior leader Raj Babbar.

The Congress' Selja and Deepender Hooda were in the fray from Sirsa and Rohtak, respectively, where they faced the BJP's Ashok Tanwar and Arvind Sharma.

The Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) fielded candidates on all 10 seats, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) on seven seats and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on nine.

After exit polls predicted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to retain power for a third straight term, Chief Minister Saini said Sunday, "When the results are out, you will see that lotus (the BJP's poll symbol) is blooming on all 11 seats."

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the Congress party will accept actual results when they are out on June 4.