Haryana Assembly Election 2024
The Haryana Assembly elections are slated to occur in a single phase on October 1, 2024, with the Election Commission of India announcing that the results will be declared on October 4, 2024. The term of the Haryana Legislative Assembly is set to expire on November 3, 2024. Alongside Haryana, elections will also be held in Jammu and Kashmir, with the vote counting for both states scheduled for October 4, as per the Election Commission’s announcement on Friday.
These Assembly elections will mark the first since the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance secured its third successive term in the Lok Sabha elections.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, both the BJP and Congress secured five out of the ten seats in Haryana. The current 90-member Haryana Assembly has 89 members, with the Rania seat vacant. The BJP holds 41 seats, the Congress has 30, and the JJP possesses 10. The INLD and Haryana Lokhit Party each have one seat, and there are six Independent members.
Congress vs BJP vs AAP: Key issues at play
The Congress is aiming to reclaim power from the BJP, which has been governing Haryana since 2014. Key election issues include the Agnipath military recruitment scheme, the farmers’ protest for a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP), and sexual assault allegations made by several wrestlers from the state.
The Congress, part of the INDIA bloc, is expected to contest the Haryana Assembly elections independently. Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has stated that no alliance talks have been held with any party, indicating that the Congress may not form an alliance with the AAP in the state.
In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Congress and AAP formed an alliance in Delhi but contested separately in Punjab. In Haryana, the Congress had allocated one seat to the AAP. However, the AAP has declared its intention to contest all 90 seats in the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections. Despite participating in several elections in the state, the AAP has yet to achieve electoral success in Haryana.
The BJP has appointed Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan as the election in-charge for Haryana, with former Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb serving as the co-election in-charge.
In March this year, the BJP replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as Haryana’s Chief Minister, appointing Nayab Singh Saini instead. Around the same time, the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) ended its four-and-a-half-year-old alliance with the BJP. The JJP has recently expressed its willingness to “assist the Congress in defeating the BJP government in Haryana.”
