Counting of Jind bypoll to be held on Thursday

The counting of votes for the Jind assembly seat by-election will take place on Thursday. The counting will be done at Jind's Arjun Stadium and the duty of the officers and employees has been set up.

The counting will begin at 8 am and the result will be available later in the day.

The by-election is a test for all the four major parties in the fray - the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the newly launched Jannayak Janata Party (JJP).

The voting took place on January 28 with nearly 76 per cent of the 1.72 lakh voters exercising their franchise in the multi-cornered contest. In the 174 booths, 1,30,913 voters out of the total 1,72,775 voters of the Jind Assembly polled. The rural area had more voting against the urban.

The fate of the four main candidates, Randeep Surjewala (Congress), Krishan Middha (BJP), Umed Singh Redhu (INLD) and Digvijay Chautala (JJP), will be decided.

The bye-election was necessitated after the death of two-time INLD legislator Hari Chand Middha, whose son is in the fray on a BJP ticket.

In the electoral battle, BJP played its stake in Krishan Middha, the son of former legislator Harichand Middha. BJP won the municipal elections in five places in Haryana and is expecting to win in this seat too.

In this election, the newly emerging MP from Haryana Dushyant Chautala's Jana Nayak Janta Party is also testing his fortune. JJP had fielded Digvijay Chautala from this seat and his eyeing a win.