Chandigarh, (Samajweekly) Polling began on Tuesday for the lone assembly seat in the BJP-ruled Haryana where the main contest was between the ruling and the opposition Congress.
A total of 1.81 lakh voters will decide the fate of 14 candidates, including seven independents, for the bypoll of the Baroda assembly seat. The counting on allots will be held on November 10.
The Congress has pitted former Sonepat Zila Parishad member Induraj Narwal against BJP candidate and Olympian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt.
The latter was nominated from this segment in 2019, but lost.
The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has fielded Joginder Singh Malik.
The bypoll has been necessitated by the death of three-time Congress legislator Sri Krishan Hooda.
Baroda is considered a stronghold of Congress leader and former two-time Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who aggressively campaigned along with his Member of Parliament son Deepender Hooda.
The BJP has fielded wrestler-turned-politician Dutt, who belongs to Bhainswal Kalan in Sonepat district and joined the party in 2019 ahead of the Assembly elections.
He lost his maiden Assembly election to Hooda by a thin margin of around 5,000 votes.
The BJP is trying its luck with the support of its alliance partner Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), a breakaway faction of the INLD.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is confident to wrest the seat from the Congress with the support of the JJP.
