New Delhi: Amid tight security arrangements, polling commenced in Hisar on Thursday morning for the by-polls to the Hisar Lok Sabha seat, which is witnessing a triangular contest.
The Anna factor is looming large in the constituency raising the stakes for the ruling Congress. Team Anna had earlier urged the voters not to vote for the Congress, drawing battle lines in Hisar. They went on a whirlwind tour of the district, going village-to-village, asking people not to vote for Congress in the by-polls on Thursday.
Even as a beleaguered Congress tried to counter the campaign, the HJC-BJP combine tried to ride the Anna wave.
BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said, "I'm happy that Team Anna is going door-to-door to make Kuldeep Bishnoi win."
Team Anna, however, made it clear that they are anti-Congress but not in favour of any other party. They asked the people to show Congress the door because the party has not given a written support for the Jan Lokpal Bill.
Polling began at 8 am and will continue till 5 pm. Voters will on Thursday seal the fate of 40 candidates who are in the fray.
Congress has fielded three-time MP from Hisar, Jai Prakash. He is pitted against Haryana Janhit Congress Kuldeep Bishnoi, son of late Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, and main opposition INLD s Ajay Singh Chautala, MLA from Dabwali and son of INLD President Om Prakash Chautala.
Out of the 40 candidates in the contest, mainly Independents, Hisar has a total voter strength of 13.32 lakh that includes 7.29 lakh males.
For the first time, videography is being done at all the polling stations in Hisar where EVMs were carried with escorts from dispatch centres. Later these machines will be carried from the booths to the strong rooms under security.
"Foolproof security arrangements have been made to ensure fair and free election, with 40 companies (4000 personnel) of Central forces deployed in addition to the police force spread across 1506 polling booths, out of which 339 have been declared as hyper sensitive and 387 others as sensitive,"
Haryana's Chief Electoral Officer, Sumita Misra said.
The high-pitched campaign that came to an end on Tuesday evening was dominated by wranglings between Congress and Team Anna, spearheading the anti-corruption campaign.
In 2009 Parliamentary polls, Congress had won nine out ten Lok Sabha seats in Haryana barring Hisar, which was won by HJC s Bhajan Lal, whose death necessitated the bypolls.
The constituency has nearly 4.6 lakh Jat voters, 80,000 Brahmins, 36,000 Bishnois, 65,000 Punjabis while Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes constitute a sizeable over 5 lakh votes.
With Additional Inputs from PTI
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