On the final day for nomination withdrawals on Monday, 90 candidates retracted their entries, leaving 1,031 candidates in contention for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana. The final numbers were updated late into the night.
Initially, 1,559 candidates had filed their nominations, but after scrutiny, 1,221 were found valid. Of these, 190 withdrew their nominations, resulting in 1,031 candidates remaining in the race. This represents a decrease of 38 candidates from the last election.
Efforts to manage rebel candidates
Throughout the day, senior leaders from both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress were actively engaged in persuading rebel candidates to withdraw. The Congress managed to convince 72 rebels, who were running as independents on 7 seats, to withdraw, while the BJP succeeded in persuading 8 candidates to withdraw from 6 seats.
In the final hours, there were emotional moments as some rebels reconsidered their decision.
The BJP is now facing 19 rebels across 15 seats, while the Congress has 29 rebels on 20 seats. This internal strife among party candidates could significantly impact the outcome of the elections. This means that both major parties, BJP and Congress, face challenges from 43 and 35 rebels, respectively, which could significantly affect their chances in the 90 constituencies.
In addition, INLD-BSP candidate Mahendra Singh spent 20 hours in hiding before eventually going to the SDM office to withdraw his nomination.
The updated candidate list includes 90 from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), 89 each from the BJP and Congress, 87 from CPI(M), INLD-BSP-HLPA, and 83 from JJP-AAP. The final composition of the candidates highlights the intense competition and the potential for significant shifts in the electoral landscape.
District-wise candidate distribution
Meanwhile, Haryana's Chief Electoral Officer, Pankaj Agarwal, providing district-wise details, said there are now 89 candidates contesting Hisar, 17 from Panchkula district, 39 from Ambala, 40 from Yamunanagar, 43 from Kurukshetra, 53 from Kaithal, 55 from Karnal, 36 from Panipat, 65 from Sonipat, 72 from Jind, 47 from Gurugram, 21 from Nuh, 33 from Palwal, and 64 candidates from Faridabad district, among others.
Those who withdrew their nominations included five candidates from Panchkula, four from Ambala, five from Yamunanagar, 15 from Kurukshetra, 15 from Kaithal, 10 from Karnal, six from Panipat, seven from Sonipat, 13 from Jind and six from Fatehabad.
Twelve were from Sirsa, 23 from Hisar, three from Dadri, 13 from Bhiwani, four from Rohtak, nine from Jhajjar, nine from Mahendragarh, three from Rewari, 15 from Gurugram, two from Nuh, four from Palwal, and seven from Faridabad.
Voting will take place on October 5, from 7 am to 6 pm, while votes will be counted on October 8, with the election results being declared on the same day, Agarwal said.
