Haryana Assembly elections | An overview of the field ahead of the polls

Get the latest updates on the Haryana Assembly elections, including candidate lists, alliances, and key issues in 2024.

The story so far: The candidate lists have been announced for the Haryana Assembly elections, set to take place on October 5, with Monday (September 16, 2024) marking the last date for withdrawal of candidates.

A multi-cornered contest is expected in the elections for Haryana’s 90 member Assembly, with Aam Aadmi Party, Indian National Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Jannayak Janata Party and Indian National Lok Dal all fielding candidates in the fray. BJP will seek to hold on to its mandate and return for a third term in office. Meanwhile, AAP and Congress have announced separate candidate lists after seat-sharing talks between the two parties failed.

Interestingly, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) led by Union Minister Jayant Chaudhary has not fielded any candidates in the Haryana Assembly elections.

Some Congress and BJP leaders have also entered the polls as independent candidates after not receiving tickets from their parties. Of these, several withdrew their nominations ahead of the cut-off date.

Candidate nominations for the Haryana Assembly polls closed on September 12, 2024. A total of 1,559 candidates had filed nominations for the Haryana Assembly polls. After the nominations were scrutinised, 1,221 were found to be valid, while 388 were rejected. At present, 1,031 candidates remain in the fray. Voting will be held on October 5, with counting to be done on October 8 along with Jammu and Kashmir.

We examine the parties contesting the elections, including notable candidates, changing alliances and efforts to woo Haryana’s voters.

The polls were moved from October 1 to October 5 after representations were received from national and state parties and the All-India Bishnoi Mahasabha regarding the Asoj Amavasya festival celebrated on October 2 by the Bishnoi community. A centuries-old tradition, the festival is celebrated in remembrance of Guru Jambeshwar and sees the movement of several pilgrims from cities such as Sirsa, Fatehabad and Hisar in Haryana to Rajasthan. The poll panel said the decision had been made “to honour both the voting rights and the cultural traditions of the Bishnoi community.” The vote counting was also moved from October 4 to October 8.