Abhay Chautala is eyeing a hat-trick as he will be contesting his third bypoll.
The bypoll to the Ellenabad Assembly constituency in Haryana's Sirsa district on Saturday is all set to witness a triangular contest, with opposition INLD's Abhay Singh Chautala, whose resignation over the farm laws issue necessitated the election, eyeing another win.
The bypoll will be held on October 30 and the counting will take place on November 2.
Gobind Kanda, brother of Haryana Lokhit Party chief and legislator Gopal Kanda, had joined the BJP recently and had been fielded by the BJP-JJP combine.
Pawan Beniwal, who had unsuccessfully contested the previous assembly poll against Abhay Chautala, recently switched over from the BJP to the Congress. He is in the fray as candidate of the main opposition party.
Abhay Chautala's resignation in January over the farm laws issue had necessitated the bypolls to the rural constituency falling in Sirsa district.
Over 1.85 lakh voters which includes over 98,000 men and 86,000 women, are eligible to cast their votes.
The electioneering for the Ellenabad Assembly seat bypoll ended on Wednesday evening with the three central agriculture laws emerging key issue in the election.
Although a total of 19 candidates, mostly independents are in the fray, Abhay Chautala, Beniwal and Gobind Kanda are being considered as key candidates.
A major part of the Ellenabad Assembly constituency is rural with people mostly relying on agriculture.
The elections for the Ellenabad Assembly seat have been held 14 times in which only the candidates of the party led by late Devi Lal were victorious.
However, things are a bit different this time as many members of the Chautala family are part of the BJP-JJP coalition government.
During the campaigning, Abhay Chautala's elder brother and JJP chief Ajay Singh Chautala, the latter's son and Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, targeted the INLD leader holding him responsible for the party's decline.
Power Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala, who is an Independent MLA, also campaigned against Abhay Chautala and in favour of the BJP candidate Gobind Kanda.
The Congress and BJP have targeted Abhay Chautala, alleging that he had thrust the election on people of Ellenabad.
Tight security arrangements have been made for the bypolls with deployment of 30 companies of central security force, five companies of the Rapid Action Force and Haryana Police.One company comprises around 120 personnel.
Abhay Chautala is eyeing a hat-trick as he will be contesting his third bypoll. Earlier, he had won the Rori Assembly bypoll in Sirsa district in 2000 and the 2010 bypoll from Ellenabad when INLD chief O P Chautala had vacated the seat as he decided to retain Uchana seat in Jind district, the other seat from which he had contested in 2009 and won.
In the 2010 bypolls to Ellenabad, Abhay Chautala won the seat and retained it in 2014 too. He again won Ellenabad in 2019 assembly polls when he was the lone INLD MLA to enter the Assembly.
Winning the Saturday's bypoll is crucial for Abhay Chautala as a loss will deal a body blow to the INLD, which in recent years is reeling under series of electoral setbacks.
While the farmers' agitation against the central farm laws has emerged as the biggest factor in this bypoll, some factors like shortage of irrigation facilities in few villages and waterlogging problem in some segments are also likely to play a role in the bypoll.
This is the second bypoll within a year which Haryana faces. In November last year, main opposition Congress had retained the Baroda assembly seat after its candidate Indu Raj Narwal defeated BJP nominee and Olympian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt.
The Baroda seat in Sonipat district had fallen vacant after the demise of Congress MLA Sri Krishan Hooda.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)