Voting for the Haryana Municipal election in five corporations and two committees happened on Sunday
Results will be declared today for the Haryana Municipal election in five municipal corporations and two municipal committees. Counting trends indicate a lead for the ruling BJP in Hisar, Rohtak, Yamunanagar, Panipat and Karnal.
The elections were held in the 110 wards of these five corporations on Sunday.
Polls were also held in 25 wards across two municipal committees - Jakhal Mandi in Fatehabad and Pundri in Kaithal.
Around 14 lakh people were eligible to vote in the election.
For the BJP, scoring a win in these civic polls is important, especially after its recent election setbacks; the party lost three heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh to the Congress.
The results are even more significant with the national election just months away.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had campaigned extensively for these polls. The opposition INLD-BSP also fielded candidates.
For the first time, the mayors of the five municipal corporations will be elected directly. Earlier, they were elected by councilors.
In another first, the Haryana poll body will treat the NOTA or "None Of The Above" option as a "fictional candidate". This means that candidates must have more votes than those cast for NOTA to win.
Haryana Director General of Police BS Sandhu had earlier said the entire police administration was fully geared up to conduct free, fair and peaceful elections.
A total of 7,016 police personnel were deployed for polling duty, the State Election Commission spokesperson said.
The Haryana municipal elections saw an overall turnout of 69.39 per cent votes, officials had said on Sunday.
In the municipal corporations, 62.7 per cent polling was registered in Hisar, 61.8 per cent in Karnal, 62 per cent in Panipat, 62.4 per cent in Rohtak and 65.2 per cent in Yamunanagar, the state election commissioner had said.
Of the 14,01,454 electorate eligible to cast their vote using EVMs, 7,44,468 were men and 6,56,986 women. Polling was held for 136 wards for the seats of mayor and members of municipal corporations and municipal committees, an official spokesperson said.