Polling for the Assembly seat of Ellenabad in Haryana’s Sirsa district commenced on a dull note on Wednesday morning.
With fog engulfing the area, very few voters were seen at polling booths.
Locked in a keen fight from Ellenabad are Abhey Singh Chautala, Indian National Lok Dal candidate and younger son of former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, and Congress’ Bharat Singh Beniwal.
Haryana Janhit Congress and BJP are not contesting the by-election necessitated by the resignation of INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala who gave up the seat and retained Uchana Kalan.
The seat is traditionally considered a stronghold of the Chautala family, though the ruling Congress is looking to break the jinx this time.
A total of 1,44,181 voters are eligible to cast their votes across 142 polling stations in the constituency, which has been declared as hyper sensitive by the authorities.
The Election Commission has deputed 170 micro observers to keep a vigil on the election process.
Tight security arrangements have been put in place with about 1700 personnel of the Haryana Police and 100 personnel of the para military forces being deputed to ensure that polling goes off smoothly.
