The Campaigning for 10 Lok Sabha seats and one Assembly Bye-Poll for Karnal in Haryana ended on Thursday. The polling in the State is scheduled on Saturday. The total number of voters in the State is  a little over 2 crore. All 10 Lok Sabha seats witnessed high-octane campaigns, rallies, door to door campaigns and roadshows by leaders of all political parties including senior BJP leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP national president JP Nadda; Senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann among others. On the last day of the poll campaign on Thursday, PM Modi addressed public rallies in Bhiwani and Mahendragarh Lok Sabha Constituency while Senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi participated in a roadshow in Sirsa. A total of 223 candidates of different political parties and independent candidates are in the fray for 10 Lok Sabha seats in the State. For the Karnal Assembly seat, where a bye-poll is scheduled to be held on Saturday, nine candidates are in the fray. Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as Chief Minister in March, is contesting the Karnal assembly seat. In a multi-cornered contest, with BJP, Congress, JJP, INLD and AAP, fielding their candidates, the contest in the State has become interesting as it is a direct fight between the BJP and INDIA Bloc parties. The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, a constituent of the oppositions INDIA Bloc is contesting one seat in Kurukshetra seat while the Congress has fielded candidates in nine seats as per the seat-sharing agreement. BJP has put its candidates on all the 10 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP had won all 10 seats of Haryana in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Among prominent candidates in contest for the 10 Lok Sabha seats include former State Chief Minister and BJPs candidate Manohar Lal Khattar from Karnal; BJPs Naveen Jindal, INLDs Abhay Chautala and AAPs Sushil Gupta from Kurukshetra; BJPs Ranjit Singh Chautala, Congress Jai Prakash and JJPs Naina Chautala from Hisar. Union Ministers Rao Inderjit Singh and Krishan Pal Gurjar are seeking re-election from Gurugram and Faridabad, respectively. From Gurugram, Singh faces Congress Raj Babbar. Congress has fielded party general secretary and former Union Minister Kumari Selja to take on BJPs Ashok Tanwar from Sirsa Lok Sabha seat. From Rohtak, the grand old party has fielded Deepender Singh Hooda to take on BJPs sitting MP Arvind Sharma. A total of 16 women among 223 candidates are in the fray for 10 Lok Sabha seats in the State. For the Karnal Assembly seat, nine candidates are in the fray, none of whom are women. None of the 22 candidates for Sonipat seat is a woman. Hisar has the maximum number of women candidates at three out of a total of 28 candidates. Kurukshetra will see the most number of candidates at 31, but only one woman candidate. At Ambala, 14 candidates, including two women, will contest the Lok Sabha election. At Sirsa Lok Sabha constituency, only one woman is part of the contest, which has 19 candidates. Karnal has 19 candidates, two of whom are women. Rohtak is witnessing a contest among 26 candidates, two women among them. Two women candidates are part of the 17 who will contest the polls in Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, one woman will contest 22 other male candidates in Gurgugram, and two women have filed nominations in Faridabad, which has 24 candidates in total. Polling parties to depart for LS Election today Haryana Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Agarwal on Thursday said all preparations for the elections have been completed. The total number of voters in Haryana in the Lok Sabha elections to be held on May 25 is 2 crore 1 lakh 87 thousand 911. In addition to this, 467 transgender voters will use their franchise. A total of 19,812 permanent polling stations have been set up in the state, while 219 more temporary polling stations have also been set up, he added. The polling parties for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 in the state will depart for their respective polling stations on Friday. If any anti-social elements or if any political party attempts to disrupt the duties of these polling teams using their influence, strict action will be taken against them according to the rules. Agarwal said that no person, other than the Returning officer, the presiding officer, any police officer or any other person appointed to maintain peace and order at the polling station who is on duty at the polling station, shall, on a polling day, go armed with arms. If he does so, he commits an offence. Under Section 134B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the person can face up to 2 years of imprisonment or fine, or both. Agarwal said that if any person fraudulently defaces or fraudulently destroys any ballot paper or EVM or the official mark on any ballot paper or EVM or puts into any ballot box anything other than the ballot paper or pastes any paper, tapes etc., on the symbol/names/ballot button of EVM for the purpose of the election commits an offence. Under Section 136 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, 2 years imprisonment or fine or both, if offence committed by any officer or clerk employed on election duty, and 6 months imprisonment or fine, for others. Adequate arrangements will be made at all polling stations, keeping in mind the current hot weather conditions. The voters will be welcomed outside the polling booths by Booth Level Officers on the day of voting, he added. On the polling day, May 25, employees of various shops and commercial establishments falling within the jurisdiction area of the State of Haryana, enrolled as voters of the State, will be granted a holiday with wages so that they can exercise their voting rights. Workers employed in factories situated in Haryana, who are registered voters in Haryana, will also be granted leave for voting on May 25. In this regard, a notification has been issued by the Haryana Labor Department. The neighbouring states have also declared leave for the Haryana voters. Over 35,000 police personnel, 112 companies of PAC forces, and more than 24,000 home guard personnel deployed for this LS Election Haryana Director General of Police Shatrujeet Kapur on Thursday said that adequate personnel have been allocated to all districts. Over 35,000 Haryana police personnel (including SPOs), 112 companies of paramilitary forces, and over 24,000 home guards have been deployed for the Lok Sabha elections. Additionally, 300 checkpoints have been established at intra-state and inter-state borders. The state will have 10,343 polling locations with 20,006 polling booths. Among these, 1,362 locations with 3,033 booths have been identified as critical, and 51 booths as vulnerable, necessitating additional police presence. There will also be 418 flying squads, 415 static surveillance teams, and 34 quick response teams. A total of 1,039 patrolling parties will ensure compliance with law and order and the model code of conduct, operating round-the-clock, he added. DGP further said that Police officers have been instructed to maintain constant contact with control room staff and to monitor every election-related call. Each call must be handled systematically, ensuring that messages reach the appropriate officials efficiently.

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