The Haryana Assembly elections 2024 will be held in a single phase on October 1, 2024 and the results would be out on October 4, 2024 as per the poll schedule announced for the northern state by the Election Commission of India. Assembly elections will also be held in J&K along with Haryana, with the counting of votes to be held for both on October 4, the EC announced on Friday.
This is the first set of Assembly elections to be held since the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance won a third straight term in the Lok Sabha elections.
The term of the 90-member Haryana Assembly is due to expire on November 3, 2024. The Congress is looking to wrest power from the BJP that has been in government since 2014. The major election issues in Haryana are the Agnipath military recruitment scheme, the farmers protest over legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP), and the sexual assault allegations levelled by several wrestlers from the state.
The Congress, part of the INDIA bloc, is likely to fight the Haryana Assembly polls on its own. Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda recently said no talks have been held with any party for an alliance yet, indicating that the grand old party may not have a tie-up with the AAP in the state.
“We have an alliance at the national level (with the AAP) but as far as state level is concerned, no talks have been held with any party… The Congress is capable (of winning) on its own. No talks have been held yet,” the two-time chief minister said.
The Congress and the AAP had fought the Lok Sabha polls together in Delhi while they contested separately in Punjab. The Congress had given one seat to the AAP in Haryana in the general elections.
The AAP, too, has announced that it will contest all 90 seats in the state. The party has contested several polls in Haryana, but is yet to taste electoral success in the state.
The ruling BJP has appointed Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan as the election in-charge for Haryana, setting in motion its preparations for the assembly polls. Former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb was made the party’s co-election in-charge.
In March this year, the BJP replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as the chief minister, bringing in Nayab Singh Saini to the top post. Around the same time, the Jannayak Janata Party’s four-and-a-half-year-old post-poll alliance with the BJP also came to an end. The JJP recently said it is ready to “help the Congress bring down the BJP government in Haryana”.
In the Lok Sabha elections 2024, the BJP and Congress won five seats apiece of the 10 seats up for grabs in Haryana.
The 90-member Haryana Assembly at present has an effective strength of 89 with Rania Assembly seat being vacant. The BJP has 41 MLAs, the Congress 30 and the JJP 10. INLD and Haryana Lokhit Party have one member each. Six are Independents.
With inputs from News18