Chandigarh, Dec 27 Amid the farmers' protests against the contentious three farm laws, polling for municipal elections began on Sunday in the BJP-Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) ruled Haryana.
This are the first elections in the state after the BJP-JJP alliance came to power in the state in October 2019.
The BJP-JJP combine and the Congress are in the fray.
The polling will continue till 5.30 p.m. for the seats of the mayor and members of the wards of the municipal corporations of Ambala, Panchkula and Sonepat, and president and members of the municipal council of Rewari and the municipal committees of Sampla (Rohtak), Dharuhera (Rewari) and Uklana (Hisar).
Former two-time Chief Minister and leader of opposition Bhupinder Hooda said the civic body elections would decide the future of politics in the state.
He said the farmers were agitating on the Delhi borders and instead of addressing their problem, the government was ignoring one of the biggest farmer movements of the country.
Om Prakash Chautala's Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has boycotted these elections in protest against the force used by the BJP-JJP government against the protesting farmers.
About 1.89 lakh people will decide the fate of former mayor and Congress candidate Upinder Kaur Ahluwalia and BJP nominee Kulbhushan Goyal and four other mayoral candidates, besides electing 20 councillors from among 83 in the fray, for the civic body polls in Panchkula.
Election officials say the polling will be conducted with strict Covid-19 guidelines. The mandatory sanitisation of the polling stations has been done before the polling.
The last one hour of the polling time has been fixed for Covid-19 patients and those having symptoms of the coronavirus.
The election for the municipalities will be conducted through EVMs, while ballot papers will be used for mayor and president elections.
The counting of votes will be done on December 30.
( With inputs from IANS )
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