There was more than 75% turnout in the high-stakes Jind Assembly by-election on Monday. The polling went off peacefully with no major incident of violence.
Jind Deputy Commissioner Amit Khatri told The Hindu over phone that 75.5% had cast their votes by 7 p.m., while voting was still under way at a few booths in villages such as Kandela. The final count could increase marginally, he added.
Of the total 1.7 lakh electorate, around 1,30,000 had voted when last reports came in, with the rural areas witnessing over 80% polling.
Jind police spokesperson Pawan Kapoor said there were no reports of violence. Elaborate security arrangements were made for polling at all the 174 booths with the deployment of around 3,000 police personnel and 500 Home Guards, besides a company each of the Central Reserve Police Force and the Rapid Action Force.
The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) legislator Hari Chand Middha.
Caught in a triangular contest with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Krishan Middha and Jannayak Janata Party’s (JJP) Digvijay Singh Chautala, senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said he was confident that the people of Jind would vote for a “new model of development and growth”, adding that the locals now had a new slogan, “Jind Badlenge, Zindagi badlege” (Will change Jind, Will change the lives).
Talking to reporters outside a booth in Urban Estate, Mr. Chautala claimed that the electorate had seen through the designs of the rival political parties and he was confident of registering a landslide victory. He said he had been visiting the booths to speak to the voters on the difficulties being faced by them and to keep a check on the working of Electronic Voting Machines.
He made an appeal to the electorate to come out and cast their votes with a positive frame of mind rising above the considerations of caste, creed and religion.
Mr. Middha, a local candidate, came to cast his vote along with his mother and expressed confidence he would win the seat by a comfortable margin.
“I hope to win the seat and gift it to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar,” said Mr. Middha, claiming that Jind had witnessed tremendous development over the past four years during the BJP rule.
The counting of votes will be taken up on January 31.
