Haryana registered a voter turnout of 22.7 per cent as of 11 am as the state votes to elect 90 legislators in a single-phase Assembly election on Saturday. The voting commenced at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm as the ruling BJP is aiming a hattrick of Assembly Election wins, while the Congress is hoping to return to power after 10 years.  

After four hours of voting, Palwal registered the highest turnout of 27.94%, followed by Jind at 27.20% and Ambala at 25.50%. Meanwhile, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Hisar and Jhajjar recorded lower turnout rates at 20.39%, 17.05%, 24.69% and 23.48% respectively.

Nearly 1,031 candidates in 90 constituencies are voting across 20,632 polling booths. Nearly 20.35 million voters, including more than 1.07 million males, 960,000 females, and 467 third-gender voters are eligible to cast their votes. 

Reportedly, 29,462 police personnel, 21,196 home guards and 10,403 Special Police Officers have been deployed across the state to ensure a smooth voting process. The JJP-ASP alliance is contesting all the seats, with JJP fielding candidates in 70 constituencies and ASP in 20.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday appealed to the people of the state to exercise their voting rights to set a new record. Taking to social media platform, X, he asked all the voters to be a part of this holy festival of democracy and set a new record of voting. He further extended his best wishes to all the young voters of the state who are going to vote for the first time. 

Earlier in the 2019 elections, the BJP won 40 seats and formed a coalition government with JJP, which secured 10 seats. Nonetheless, JJP later left the coalition. The counting of votes for Haryana will be announced on October 8.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday alleged that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government’s skill development cooperation is facilitating the recruitment of about 15,000 Indian workers in Israel in the West Asia war.

The Congress chief claimed that earlier youth from the country were duped by dubious agents for going to the Russia-Ukraine war and many lost their lives too.

“It speaks volumes about the Joblessness induced by the anti-youth policies of the Modi Government,” he said in a social media post on X.

Kharge said that the fact that young unskilled, semi-skilled and educated youth are willing to risk their lives and serve in war-ridden theatres, at reportedly high salaries, “tells you that PM Modi’s lofty claims on Jobs are nothing but fake retorts to hide his own failures”.

“Youth of Haryana who are forced to seek jobs in these conflict zones will teach a befitting lesson to the BJP, tomorrow,” the 82-year-old leader said.

“None less than Modi Government’s National Skill Development Cooperation is facilitating the recruitment of about 15,000 Indian workers in Israel, amidst the war in West Asia,” senior Congress leader alleged.

The Congress leader’s remarks were made a day before the Haryana Assembly elections, where his party aims to regain power from the BJP after a decade.

Labeling the reports of a proposed toilet tax in the state as baseless, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhuon Friday slammed BJP after it claimed that the Congress-led government is planning to impose a tax of Rs 25 on toilets in urban households.

Speaking to reporters, Sukhu said, “BJP distributed free sweets to the capable people whereas today in Himachal, facilities are being provided to every needy person. Allegations like toilet tax are completely baseless. They need to seriously study this issue.”

The controversy sparked after the reports alleged that the Sukhu government had ordered citizens to pay sewage connection fees per toilet seat in their homes, as the state faces a financial crisis. 

With the alleged proposal of the state government, Opposition BJP including Union Ministers criticized the Congress-led state government for taxing basic amenities.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman expressed her disbelief on a social media platform and said, “Unbelievable, if true! While PM Modi builds Swachhata as a people’s movement, here is Congress taxing people for toilets! Shame that they didn’t provide good sanitation during their time, but this step will shame the country.”

Addressing the ‘Abhinandan Samaroh’ organised by party workers in Himachal Pradesh’s Bilaspur, BJP president JP Nadda hit out at Sukhu government over a toiled tax proposal in the state.

“Himachal has become 100% ODF under the Swachh Bharat campaign. But today I heard here that Sukhu ji has imposed tax on toilets here as well. This Congress government has lost its mind!” he slammed Congress government in the state.

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla took a swipe at Congress, saying, “Now Congress won’t even let you to go to toilet in peace”.

The Himachal Pradesh government, after facing backlash from the Opposition, released an official statement that read, “The Jal Shakti Department of Himachal Pradesh refutes the news published in the media, which claims that sewage connections will be provided based on the number of toilet seats installed by the building owner. It is clarified that no such notification has been issued by the present government.”

It added that sewage connections will continue to be provided as before and further clarified that the recent notification pertains only to water charges, and all other conditions remain unchanged.