Elections in Haryana

PEPSU state in East Punjab region which included present day Haryana.

Prior to Haryana's establishment as a separate state in 1966, after carving out Haryana from Punjab, elections in Haryana were part of elections in unified Punjab. Cis-Sutlej states, which included princely states of Jind, Kaithal and Kalsia, as well as the parts of pricnely states of Patiala and Nabha falling in Haryana, were merged with the PEPSU Legislative Assembly (existed 1948 - 1956). On 1 November 1956, PEPSU was merged mostly into Punjab State following the States Reorganisation Act.[2] Part of former state of PEPSU lie within the present state of Haryana which was separated from Punjab on 1 November 1966, those parts include the area around Jind and the Narnaul enclave. Until 1967 elections in Haryana were part of the Elections in Punjab.

Haryana was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 November 1966 on linguistic as well as on cultural basis.[3][4] Since 1967 elections have been held by the Election Commission of Haryana.[1] 1st (1951), 2nd (1957) and 3rd (1962) Lok Sabha elections (also called general elections) were held when Haryana was still part of Punjab. Haryana was divided into 10 Lok Sabha constituencies, out of which 2 are reserved. After the electoral boundaries delimitation in 2007 by the Delimitation Commission of India, Bhiwani and Mahendragarh constituencies became defunctional and those were replaces by 2 new reorganised constituencies.[5]

After formation of Haryana in 1966, the composition of Lok Sabha was changed and seats were enhanced to accommodate additional seats from the newly formed state of Haryana.[6] Last delimitation of electoral boundaries of Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha constituencies in Haryana was done by the Delimitation Commission of India in 2007-08.[7] After the delimitation in 2007-08, Bhiwani and Mahendragarh constituencies were merged to form Bhiwani–Mahendragarh and a new Gurgaon Lok Sabha constituency was craved out by bifurcating the existing Faridabad Lok Sabha Constituency.[5][8]

Currently Haryana has 10 Lok Sabha and 90 Vidhan Sabha seats, of which 2 Lok Sabha and 17 Vidhan Sabha seats are reserved for the Scheduled Castes. For the 2026 delimitation, Haryana is proposed to have 14 Lok Sabha and 126 Vidhan Sabha seats, of which 3 Lok Sabha (1 more) and 25 Vidhan Sabha (8 more) seats will be reserved. This will added 4 Lok Sabha and 36 Vidhan Sabha seats to Haryana.[9]

Lok Sabha constituencies in Haryana. Reserved constituencies in yellow.

Haryana Vidhan Sabha constituencies, reserved constituencies in yellow.

Haryana has 10 Lok Sabha constituencies, including 2 reserved constituencies (Ambala and Sirsa).

Current constituency

Defunct constituency

List of Lok Sabha elections in Haryana.

The elections for the Haryana Vidhan Sabha are being held since 1967.[19]

Elderly voters showing their election identity card in a village in Haryana, c. 10 May 2004.

Local self-government in India refers to governmental jurisdictions below the level of the state in the federal republic of India with three spheres of government: central (union), state and local. The 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments give recognition and protection to local governments and in addition each state has its own local government legislation.[21] Since 1993, local government in India takes place in two very distinct forms. Urban localities, covered in the 74th amendment to the Constitution,[22] have Nagar Palika but derive their powers from the individual state governments, while the powers of rural localities have been formalized under the panchayati raj system, under the 73rd amendment to the Constitution.[23] District Magistrates (in their capacity as District Election Officers), Electoral Registration Officers and Returning Officers are responsible for conducting municipal and panchayat raj elections at village, block and district level.[21][12]

Haryana has 22 districts, 72 sub-divisions, 93 tehsils, 50 sub-tehsils, 142 blocks, 154 cities and towns, 6,841 villages, 6212 villages panchayats and numerous smaller dhanis.[24] Haryana has at least 10 municipal corporations (Gurugram, Faridabad, Ambala, Panchkula, Yamunanagar, Rohtak, Hisar, Panipat, Karnal and Sonepat), 18 municipal councils and 52 municipalities (c. Jan 2018).[25] See the partial list (please help expand) of and .

Voters queuing up to vote in Kakroi village of Sonepat in Haryana, c. 7 May 2009.

According to Election Commission of Haryana, Haryana had a population of 2,1145,000 and 25,352,000 in 2001 and 2011 respectively.[26] In October 2019, Haryana had 1,82,98,714 voters, including 1,81,91,228 general voters and 1,07,486 Service Voters (postal voters), who will cast votes 19,425 polling stations for the 2019 Haryana Legislative Assembly election.[27] Psephologists, electoral data scientists, political analysts, Political forecasters, opinion polls and media often analyse and discuss the electoral demography in terms of gender, age group, castes, electoral geography, ethnic enclaves, swing of voters from/to a particular party or candidate.

According to 2011 Census of India, there are 87.46% Hindus, 7.03% Muslims (mainly Meos), and 4.91% Sikhs.[28] In terms of native language, 87.31% use Hindi, 10.57% Punjabi, and 1.23% Urdu.[29] Haryana has 70% rural population who primarily speak Haryanvi dialect of Hindi,[30] and related dialects, such as Bagri[31][32] and Mewati.[33][34]

Haryana was made a separate state on linguistic and cultural basis.[3][4] Consequently, within the limited context of elections the psephologists often refer to various geo-ethnic enclaves and geo-linguistic areas of Haryana, which are the Ahirwal, Deshwal belt, GT Road belt, Jat belt, Mewat, Punjabi belt, and Ror belt.[35] Description of these psephological regions is as follows:

• Ahirwal region in South Haryana,[36] centered around Rewari and numerically dominated by the Ahir community,[37] has 11 assembly segments spread over three Lok Sabha seats — Bhiwani-Mahendergarh (Mahendergarh district only), Gurgaon and Rohtak [Kosli assembly constituency only].[38]
• Brahmin Belt - Also known as GT Road belt, an area on either side of the Grand Trunk Road from Ambala to Sonepat, has 28 legislative assembly constituencies. This area is not dominated there is no dominance of one caste or community in the northern districts of Panchkula, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Panipat and Kaithal.[39][35] But Brahmin (mostly gaurs) constitutes the single largest community with presence in every village and city.[40]
• Jat belt is an area where jats are found in numerically higher numbers compared to other castes.
• Mewat region spread across Nuh district and Hathin tehsil of Palwal district in South Haryana is numerically dominated by the Meo community who speak Mewati dialect in rural areas.[41][42][43]

An elderly Haryanvi female voter showing indelible ink mark after casting her vote, c. 10 April 2014.

According to ECH data Haryana has poor female participation in contesting elections, out of the 90 assembly seats there are 58 seats which have never elected a female MLA. The Kalanaur Vidhan Sabha reserved constituency has elected the most number of female MLAs. From 1967 to 2014, 44 elected female MLAs were from congress, 11 from BJP, 6 from Janata Dal and INLD, 4 from Janata Party, 2 from Vishal Haryana Party, 2 from Hariyana Vikas Party. As of September 2019, only 3 female have won elections an independent candidate: Sharada Rani from Ballabgarh in 1982, Meritorious from Jhajjar in 1987 and Shakuntala Bhagwadia from Bawal in 2005. In 2014, 10 candidates were fielded by Congress, 16 by INlD, 15 by BJP, 12 by Haryana lokhit Party, 5 of HJC, 6 by Bahujan Samaj Party, and 4 by Jan Chetna Party, among them Rohita Rewari of BJP from Panipat city garnered a maximum of 63.5% votes, and a minimum of 30.3% votes were gained by Santosh Chauhan Sarwan of BJP from Mullana.[1] In 2019 Vidhan Sabha elections, only 9 (10% of total legislature membership) female candidate were elected, 4 from Congress, 3 from BJP, 1 from JJP and 1 independent.[44]Only 9 women make it to Haryana assembly, 23 in Maharashtra, Economic Times, 25 October 2019.</ref>

Prominent female politicians of Haryana include the late Sushma Swaraj - former Union Foreign Minister, and Chandravati - former Governor who had defeated then Chief Minister Bansi Lal in 1972.[1]

Female contestants in Vidhan Sabha elections