A third of Haryana votes amid minor clashes

Chandigarh, Oct 15 (IANS) With enthusiastic voters forming long queues at polling stations across Haryana, balloting was in full swing for 90 assembly seats Wednesday.

Haryana poll per cent till 2pm: 45 per cent 

About 40 percent polling was reported from Haryana till 1 p.m.

In 10 out of Haryana's 21 districts, the voter turnout crossed 40 percent till 1 p.m. These included Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Mewat, Fatehabad, Kaithal, Jind, Sirsa and Palwal. In the remaining districts, the voting percentage was between 31 and 40 percent.

Kurukshetra district led with over 51 percent voting.

Heavy ballotting was reported from majority of the booths. Voters patiently stood outside rural polling stations in most areas. At many urban polling booths also, brisk voting was reported.

Minor clashes were reported at four places between workers of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Bharatiya Janata Party and others.

A clash took place between BJP and INLD workers in Baansgaon of Narnaund assembly constituency in Hisar district. BJP candidate Abhimanyu alleged that INLD workers captured the polling booth and stopped the webcast from there.

In Sirsa district, an incident of firing was reported from Modiakhera village.

Voting was impacted in Sikanderpur village in Pataudi constituency as an official told women to show their faces before voting, police said.

Voters could be seen queued up at some polling stations even before the official start time of 7 a.m. Women voters were also seen lining up enthusiastically, especially in rural areas.

Over 1.63 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise. Polling across the state will be held at 16,357 polling centres between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.

There are 1,351 candidates in the fray, including a record 116 women. Most seats are witnessing multi-cornered contests this time.

The main contest is between the ruling Congress, the main opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Among the early voters Wednesday were the country's richest woman Savitri Jindal, INLD candidates Naina Chautala and Dushyant Chautala, who is the Hisar MP, Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) president Kuldeep Bishnoi, union Minister of State Krishan Pal Gurjar and former union minister Venod Sharma.