CHANDIGARH: The elections to the 90-member Haryana Assembly on Wednesday witnessed a record 76 per cent of the electorate casting their votes and indications are that the final polling percentage may go up even further. And the massive turnout eclipsed the previous record of 72.65 per cent recorded in 1967. Barring minor clashes, which resulted in injuries to 32 persons including 10 policemen, polling was largely peaceful across the state whose political landscape has been dominated by the ruling Congress, the BJP, the INLD and the HJC.
The sporadic violence at Barwala in Hisar followed a clash between the polling agents of two rival parties and a case was registered in this connection.
Voting was affected in Sikanderpur village in Pataudi constituency as an official told the women voters to show their faces before casting their ballots. In Sirsa, two persons were injured following minor altercation between the INLD and the BJP workers. I n another incident, the window panes of a car belonging to a supporter of Haryana Lokhit Party Gopal Kanda were broken following a minor clash between the supporters of the HLP and the INLD. “Two persons were injured in firing during a clash between supporters of two groups in Sirsa,’’ Sirsa SP, Mitesh Jain said.
In Narnaund, BJP candidate and CM aspirant Capt Abhimanyu alleged that attempts had been made to capture booth were made in Baans village in the constituency at the behest of the INLD, which vehemently denied the charge. Abhimanyu alleged that the wires of the web-casting camera were cut in Booth No 140 and attempts had been made to capture the booth by the ‘goondas’. He said, “ the police looked on like mute spectators”.