Haryana News: ECI team arrives in Chandigarh on a two-day visit ahead of Assembly Elections, 2024

A delegation of Election Commission of India led by CEC Rajiv Kumar arrived in Chandigarh on August 12 to review poll preparedness for forthcoming assembly elections in Haryana. Election Commissioners, Gyanesh Kumar and Dr SS Sandhu also accompanied Kumar on a two-day visit to the poll-bound state, officials said.

The team, and other officers of the Commission, will hold various meetings in the city for the upcoming Haryana assembly polls, officials said. Legislative Assembly elections for the 90-member Haryana assembly are scheduled to be held later this year.

The term of the current 90-member Haryana legislative assembly is set to end on November 3, 2024.

Review Meetings

Haryana Chief Electoral Officer, Pankaj Agarwal said that the Commission will on Monday review election preparations in a meeting with representatives of political parties, district election officers, and senior officers of Haryana. He said that on Tuesday, the poll panel will give guidelines to enforcement agencies to enhance monitoring and vigilance across the state.

“Besides this, the Commission will hold crucial meetings with the Chief Secretary, Director General of Police, other Administrative Secretaries, and senior police officers to review other arrangements,” he said.

On July 31, the ECI had issued directions to Haryana chief secretary regarding transfer of officers directly connected with election duties and posted in home districts.

Congress Resurgence

In 2019, assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest party and formed the government in a post-poll alliance with the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and seven Independent MLAs in Haryana in 2019.

BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar and JJP President Dushyant Chautala were sworn in as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively of BJP-JJP alliance government. Khattar has since resigned and is now a minister in Modi 3.0. Chautala left the alliance just before Lok Sabha polls.

In Haryana, where the Congress is showing a resurgence in its electoral fortunes, the BJP government led by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini was in a crisis of sorts just before the Lok Sabha polls when three Independent MLAs withdrew their support from the ruling BJP in Haryana.

Crisis of Sorts

The BJP finished with just five of the 10 seats in 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Haryana. The Congress party bagged five remaining seats. In 2019 general elections, the BJP had won all ten seats in 2019.

The BJP government led by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini was in a crisis of sorts just before the Lok Sabha polls when three Independent MLAs withdrew their support from the ruling BJP in Haryana.