Vivek Gupta 
Most exit polls may have predicted a strong victory for Congress in Haryana but the competition has been intense across all 90 assembly constituencies of the state.
As Tuesday’s poll results will decide the fate of over 1,000 candidates vying for these seats, the focus will be on several key contests that will set the tone for Haryana’s future.
Of all 90 seats, Ladwa in Kurukshetra district and Garhi Sampla-Kiloi in Rohtak district will be at the centre of attention as the chief minister’s chair is on the line in both these two seats.
Ladwa has gained prominence due to the candidature of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister Nayab Singh Saini. BJP lost this seat in last state polls in 2019. It remains to be seen if Ladwa proves lucky for Saini as well as for the BJP. Saini, an OBC leader, faces tough contest from Congress’s Mewa Singh and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD)’s Sapna Barshami.
On the other hand, Garhi Sampla-Kiloi has been a long time bastion of former chief minister and Congress prominent Jat face Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Winning the seat non-stop since 2009, Hooda is eyeing another term as MLA from this seat as well as the CM’s chair if Congress manages to win. BJP’s Manju Hooda and INLD’s Krishan are his main competitors on this seat.
Also read: Countdown to Change? Shift in Haryana’s Political Landscape as Voters Prepare to Decide
Wrestler’s redemption
Julana in Jind district is another hot seat in this election with Congress fielding prominent wrestler Vinesh Phogat.
A youth icon and a pride of the Jat community, her historic fight against former Indian wrestling body chief-cum-BJP leader Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on sexual harassment charges and then her unfortunate exit in the final bout at Paris Olympics really caught the nation’s attention.
Congress’s Vinesh move is seen as a master stroke this time. She is contesting her new battle against BJP’s Yogesh Bairagi, a professional pilot and another wrestler, Kavita Dalal, fielded by the Aam Aadmi Party.
Heavyweights in contest
Several political heavyweights are in contest in this polls, notably from Ambala Cantonment seat in Ambala district, Ellenabad in Sirsa district and Uchana Kalan in Jind districts.
All eyes will be on Ambala cantonment, where former state home minister and senior BJP leader Anil Vij is the candidate. Even as BJP has declared Saini as its CM face for these polls, Vij has also thrown in his claim for the top post.
His main opponent here is former Congress leader and now independent candidate Chitra Sarwara, who gave a good fight to Vij in the 2019 polls.
Apart from this, Ellenabad in Sirsa district witnessed another key contest due to the seat being stronghold of INLD’s Chautala family, which once ruled the state.
INLD’s senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala has held this seat since 2010. The lone MLA of his party, he won this seat by a narrow margin last time.
This time, he could play kingmaker.
Here, he is in direct contest against Congress’s Bharat Singh Beniwal and BJP’s Amir Chand Talwara.
Also read: Close Contest in Haryana’s Ladwa As Unemployment, Farmers’ Distress Cloud Hopes of ‘CM City’
Uchana Kalan is another hotspot for political competition between Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) leader Dushyant Chautala and Congress’s Brijindra Singh, who belongs to the prominent political family of Chaudhary Birender Singh.
Dushyant too comes from prominent Chautala family of INLD but formed his own party JJP after a family feud in 2018. His party played kingmaker in the 2019 elections and ran the coalition government with BJP for four and half years before the latter snapped ties and made a new government under Nayab Saini with help of independents and disgruntled JJP MLAs.
This election will decide not just Dushyant’s own political future but also that of his party’s, which many say is facing a crisis due to wrong political decisions. In the recent Lok Sabha polls, JJP polled less than 1% vote share against the 15% it got in the 2019 assembly polls.
Political legacies at stake
Haryana has been famous as the land of three Lals – Bansi Lal, Devi Lal and Bhajan Lal – late stalwart politicians who served Haryana as chief ministers multiple times and even had a role in national politics.
Now, the stage is set for their grandchildren. Toshan in Bhiwani district has been a bastion of the four-time CM Bansi Lal. Later his younger son Surender Singh and his wife Kiran Choudhry represented the seat.
Now Kiran’s daughter, Shruti Choudhry has been in keen context for this seat against her cousin, Anirudh Chaudhary, son of Bansi Lal’s elder son Ranbir Mahendra. Both will fight to claim their grandfather’s legacy.
However, BJP rebel Shashi Ranjan Parmar, who is contesting as an independent because he was miffed with Shruti’s nomination, may play the spoilsport.
Also read: BJP-Congress Contest in Haryana Centres Around Jat Dominance
Adampur in Hisar district is another hotspot. Here, three-time CM Bhajan Lal held sway for long years before his son Kuldeep Bishnoi was elected MLA.
Now Kuldeep’s son Bhavya Bishnoi has contested on a BJP ticket. He had won from here in the 2022 bypolls.
Bhajan Lal had been in Congress for most of his life. His elder estranged son Chander Mohan is still in Congress and contesting from Panchkula in this election.
Rania constituency in Sirsa district is, meanwhile, dominated by a dramatic political feud in the Chaudhary Devi Lal family.
Ranjit Singh Chautala, Devi Lal’s son, is running as an independent, having distanced himself from the BJP after his 2024 general election loss.
Arjun Chautala, Devi Lal’s great grandnephew and son of Abhay Chautala, representing INLD, is challenging him. Poll observers say that this contest could potentially reshape the Devi Lal and Chautala family legacy in Haryana.
There is also Aditya Surjewala, the youngest candidate in the Haryana assembly elections, who is the son of senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala, from the Kaithal seat.
The Ateli assembly constituency witnessed a keen battle between BJP’s Aarti Rao, daughter of Union minister and influential Ahir leader Rao Inderjit, and JJP’s Aayushi Yadav, niece of former minister and BJP leader Rao Narbir Singh.