Haryana Assembly polls | Campaigning ends, voting on Saturday

Chandigarh, Oct 3 (PTI) The high-octane campaign in Haryana for the October 5 assembly polls came to an end Thursday evening as the BJP hopes to buck anti-incumbency to retain power for a third consecutive term and the Congress eyes a comeback after a decade-long hiatus.

More than two crore voters, including 8,821 centurions, are eligible to exercise their franchise in Haryana.

Hours before the poll campaign ended at 6 pm, key contesting parties BJP, Congress, AAP, INLD-BSP and JJP-Azad Samaj Party made last ditch efforts to woo voters holding rallies and roadshows.

The polling for all the 90 constituencies in Haryana will take place on October 5 from 7 am to 6 pm, Chief Electoral Officer Pankaj Agarwal said.

A total of 20,629 polling booths have been set up for the elections, officials said.

After 6 pm on Thursday, no political party or candidate will be allowed to hold public meetings or rallies, Agarwal said.

In an interesting development, senior BJP leader and former MP Ashok Tanwar joined the Congress at Rahul Gandhi's rally in Mahendragarh district Thursday. Shortly before joining the Congress, the former Sirsa MP was campaigning for the BJP candidate in Safidon assembly constituency.

The BJP focused its election campaign on the works and performance of the "double-engine" government, while it targeted the Congress on reservation, corruption, appeasement and dynastic politics.

Issues related to women, youth, farmers and the poor formed the core of respective poll manifestos of the two main contesting parties.

On the last day of campaigning, Congress's Rahul Gandhi and Bhupinder Singh Hooda, BJP's Yogi Adityanath and Nayab Singh Saini, JJP's Dushyant Chautala and INLD's Abhay Singh Chautala were among the prominent leaders who canvassed for their respective parties.

The BJP's campaign was spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who addressed four rallies, where he attacked the Congress on several issues and said they kept every matter important for the country entangled, including the Ram temple issue.

While highlighting several initiatives the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Haryana took for welfare of various sections including farmers, poor, Dalits and backward sections, Modi appealed to voters to bring back the BJP to power for the state's accelerated growth.

He was unsparing in his attack on the Congress, dubbing it as the country's biggest anti-Dalit party, whose sole agenda is appeasement for vote, and asserted nobody can snatch reservation of SC, ST and OBC.

Modi said corruption runs in veins of the Congress and alleged it has "turned into a party of 'dalalon' (middlemen) and 'damadon'".

He also accused the Congress of becoming a new (naya roop) form of urban Naxal. It does not feel any shame in speaking lies, he said.

Modi also told the election gatherings that the Congress wants to bring Article 370 back in Jammu and Kashmir and asked the people of Haryana to be wary of its promises and intentions.

Modi and other BJP leaders like Amit Shah targeted the Congress, saying when it ruled the state they did not give even one job in Haryana in which "kharchi and parchi" (corruption and favouritism) was not prevalent.

The BJP leaders asked people to be wary of the Congress' "falsehoods", and reminded them that they have failed to fulfil promises they made in Himachal, Karnataka and Telangana.

During his campaigning which included a rally in Nuh that had last year witnessed incidents of violence, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Modi government of attacking the Constitution and also slammed it over various issues including unemployment, the Agniveer scheme and farmers' welfare.

Gandhi also alleged that the government was working for a handful of billionaires in the country.

He said the Constitution protects the poor. "And these RSS people want to undermine the Constitution. It is their target." Gandhi accused the BJP of spreading hatred in the country on the basis of religion, language and caste and asserted that his party will not let the hatred win and asked the people of Haryana to oust the ruling party. At the rallies, he also raised the issues of unemployment and drug menace in Haryana.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, who also campaigned for a day, alleged that Modi is an expert in "telling lies" and the BJP has failed to fulfil commitments made to voters in the past.

Union Home Minister Shah targeted the Congress over corruption, casteism, nepotism and appeasement. He dubbed the party as "anti-poor", "anti-Dalits", "anti-youth" and "anti-farmers".

With Congress attacking the Agnipath scheme, Shah said it has been introduced to ensure a youthful profile of the armed forces, while asserting Haryana and the Centre will give pensionable jobs to every single Agniveer.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked the people of Haryana to oust the BJP, saying this is a fight against injustice, untruth and the wicked.

AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal also campaigned in Haryana for his party.

Kejriwal, whose party is contesting on its own after talks for a tie-up with the Congress in Haryana failed to materialize, said the BJP dispensation put him in jail so as to stop his works and also prove him dishonest.

During his speeches, Kejriwal claimed that the next government in Haryana cannot be formed without the support of his party even as he targeted the BJP, claiming that the entire state wants 'badlav' (change) and people will oust the ruling party in the polls.

Amid the poll fever, Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was granted a 20-day parole, yet another one which coincided when some elections were round the corner.

Wooing voters with promises, the Congress announced seven guarantees, including the promises of a legal guarantee for MSP, a caste survey, and Rs 2,000 per month to women, if voted to power.

On the other hand, the BJP promised a monthly assistance of Rs 2,100 for women, two lakh government jobs for the youth and guaranteed government job for 'Agniveers' hailing from the state.

There are 1031 candidates in the fray, 101 of them women. Prominent among those in fray include Chief Minister Saini (Ladwa), Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Garhi Sampla-Kiloi), INLD's Abhay Singh Chautala (Ellenabad), JJP's Dushyant Chautala (Uchana Kalan), BJP's Anil Vij (Ambala Cantt) and O P Dhankar (Badli), AAP's Anurag Dhanda (Kalayat) and Congress's Vinesh Phogat (Julana). Among the independent candidates include Savitri Jindal (Hisar), Ranjit Chautala (Rania) and Chitra Sarwara (Ambala Cantt).

In the previous assembly polls in 2019, the BJP had won 40 seats and the Congress 31.

The BJP formed the government with the support of JJP while most Independents had also extended support to it then. However, JJP's post-poll tie-up with the BJP ended after the saffron party replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini as chief minister in March. PTI