Elections in

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

, which is a state in India, have been conducted since 1967 to elect the members of state-level

Haryana Legislative Assembly The Haryana Legislative Assembly (ISO: ''Hariyāṇā Vidhāna Sabhā'') is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Haryana. The seating of the assembly is at Chandigarh, the capital of the state. There are seats in the house fil ...

and national-level

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

. There are 90 assembly constituencies (17 reserved for SC) and 10 Lok Sabha constituencies (2 reserved for SC).

History

Before formation of 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 Jind is one of the largest and oldest cities in Jind district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is the administrative headquarter of Jind district. Rani Talab is the main destination for tourists while Pandu Pindara and Ramrai are the ma ...

, Kaithal and

Kalsia Kalsia was a princely state in Punjab (British India), Punjab, British Raj, British India, one of the former Cis-Sutlej states. It was founded by Gurbaksh Singh Kalsia in 1760. After India's independence, it was included in Patiala and East Pun ...

, as well as the parts of pricnely states of

Patiala Patiala () is a city in southeastern Punjab, India, Punjab, northwestern India. It is the fourth largest city in the state and is the administrative capital of Patiala district. Patiala is located around the ''Qila Mubarak, Patiala, Qila Mubar ...

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 Punjab () is a state in northwestern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the north and northeast, Haryana to the south and southeast, ...

following the

States Reorganisation Act The States Reorganisation Act, 1956 was a major reform of the boundaries of India's States and union territories of India, states and territories, organising them along linguistic lines. Although additional changes to India's state boundaries ...

. Part of former state of PEPSU lie within the present state of

which was separated from

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

on 1 November 1966, those parts include the area around

and the

Narnaul Narnaul is a city, a Municipal Council, and location of headquarters of the Mahendragarh district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is located in the National Capital Region of India. History & etymology During the early vedic period o ...

enclave. Until 1967 elections in Haryana were part of the Elections in Punjab.

After formation of Haryana

Haryana was carved out of the former state of

East Punjab East Punjab was a state of Dominion of India from 1947 until 1950. It consisted parts of the Punjab Province of British India that remained in India following the partition of the state between the new dominions of Pakistan and India by the ...

on 1 November 1966 on

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

as well as on

cultural Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

basis. Since 1967 elections have been held by the Election Commission of Haryana.Parties seek women's votes but not representation in Assembly
Daily Pioneer, 09 October 2019. 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 The Delimitation Commission of India is a commission established by the Government of India under the provisions of the Delimitation Commission Act, tasked with redrawing the boundaries of legislative assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies bas ...

Bhiwani Bhiwani is a city and a municipal council in Bhiwani district in the state of Haryana. Besides being a seat of spiritual learning, the city is at the centre of regional politics and hometown of three former Haryana chief ministers: Bansi Lal ...

and Mahendragarh constituencies became defunctional and those were replaces by 2 new reorganised constituencies.All-Jat contest in Haryana's Badhra assembly constituency set for nail-biting finish
Hindustan Times, 18 October 2019.

Delimitation

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.Explained: Why Lok Sabha is still 543
Indian Express, 14 October 2019. Last delimitation of electoral boundaries of Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha constituencies in Haryana was done by the

in 2007-08.Haryana Assembly Election 2019, Panipat City profile: Snatched from Congress in 2014, BJP heads to defend turf
First Post, Haryana Assembly Election 2019, Panipat City profile: Snatched from Congress in 2014, BJP heads to defend turf. After the delimitation in 2007-08,

and Mahendragarh constituencies were merged to form Bhiwani–Mahendragarh and a new

Gurgaon Gurgaon (), officially named Gurugram (), is a satellite city of Delhi and administrative headquarters of Gurgaon district, located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. It is situated near the Delhi–Haryana border, about southwest ...

Lok Sabha constituency was craved out by bifurcating the existing Faridabad Lok Sabha Constituency.Lok Sabha 2019: A Guide To Phase 6
The Quint, 11 May 2019. Currently Haryana has 10 Lok Sabha and 90 Vidhan Sabha seats, of which 2 Lok Sabha and 17 Vidhan Sabha seats are

reserved Reserved is a Polish apparel retailer headquartered in Gdańsk, Poland. It was founded in 1999 and remains the flagship brand of the LPP (company), LPP group, which has more than 2,200 retail stores located in over 38 countries and also owns su ...

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 add 4 Lok Sabha and 36 Vidhan Sabha seats to Haryana.हरियाणा में अब चुनावाें में बदलेंगे सियासी समीकरण, होंगी 14 लोकसभा और 126 विधानसभा सीटें
Jagran, 29 July 2021.

Major Political Parties

politics of Haryana The key political players in Haryana state in northern India are the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the Indian National Congress, the Indian National Lok Dal, The Sarvahit Party and smaller parties like the Haryana Janhit Congress and the Bahuja ...

, the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

(INC),

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

(BJP),

Indian National Lok Dal The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) is a political party based primarily in the Indian state of Haryana. It was initially founded as the Haryana Lok Dal (Rashtriya) by Devi Lal in 1996, who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of India. The ...

(INLD) are the major political parties in the state. In the past, various parties such as Haryana Vikas Party (HVP), Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) (HJC-BL),

Janata Dal Janata Dal () was an List of political parties in India, Indian political party which was formed through the merger of Lok Dal, Indian National Congress (Jagjivan), and the Jan Morcha on 11 October 1988—the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Na ...

(JD),

Janata Party The Janata Party (JP, ) is an unrecognised political party in India. Navneet Chaturvedi is the current president of the party since November 2021, replacing Jaiprakash Bandhu. The JP was established as an amalgam of Indian political partie ...

(JP), Vishal Haryana Party (VHP),

Bharatiya Jana Sangh The Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh) was a Hindutva political party active in India. It was established on 21 October 1951 in Delhi by three founding members: Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Balraj Madhok and Deendayal ...

(BJS) among others have been influential in the state. The dynastic political clans of Haryana are often criticised for the infamous self-serving politics of the Aaya Ram Gaya Ram

turncoat A Turncoat, also known as a Turncloak, is a person who shifts allegiance from one loyalty or ideal to another, betraying or deserting an original cause by switching to the opposing side or party. In political and social history, this is distinc ...

s who notoriously engage in the frequent

party switching Party switching or party hopping is any change in political party affiliation of a partisan public figure, usually one currently holding election, elected office. Party switching occurs quite commonly in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Italy, Romania ...

, political horse trading, unholy political alliances,

political corruption Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. Forms of corruption vary but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influen ...

, political cronyism,

nepotistic Nepotism is the act of granting an advantage, privilege, or position to relatives in an occupation or field. These fields can include business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, religion or health care. In concept it is similar to cr ...

-dynastic rule which serves their own clan more than it serves their voters and people of Haryana they are ought to serve.How 5 families over 3 generations have controlled Haryana's politics from day one
The Print,-29 Apr 2019.

Conducting elections

Elections in Haryana are conducted by the Election Commission of Haryana (ECH), which operates under the

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body established by Constitution of India, the Constitution of the Republic of India empowered to conduct free and fair elections in the Republic of India. It is headed by a Chief Ele ...

(ECI). Administration of ECH at state level is under the ''"Chief Electoral Officer of Haryana"'', who is an IAS officer of Principal Secretary rank. At the district and constituency levels, the District Magistrates (in their capacity as District Election Officers), Electoral Registration Officers and Returning Officers perform election work.

is an autonomous constitutional authority responsible for administering election processes in India at national, state and district level. The body administers elections to the

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

, state Legislative Assemblies, state legislative Councils, and the offices of the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

and

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

of the country. The Election Commission operates under the authority of

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

per ''Article 324'', and subsequently enacted

Representation of the People Act Representation of the People Act is a stock short title used in Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Mauritius, Pakistan, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, ...

Type of elections

Haryana, after being separated from

, first went to polls in 1967. Lok Sabha elections, also called the ''General Elections'', are held at national level, Vidhan Sabha elections are held to elect the state level assembly, and the

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...

local self-governance elections are held at Municipal and Gram panchayat (village council) level.

Lok Sabha elections

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

Ambala Ambala () is a city and a municipal corporation in Ambala district in the state of Haryana, India, located on the border with the Indian state of Punjab (India), Punjab and in proximity to both states capital Chandigarh. Politically, Ambala ...

* Bhiwani–Mahendragarh *

Faridabad Faridabad () is the most populous List of cities in Haryana by population, city near NCT of Delhi in the Indian state of Haryana and a part of National Capital Region (India), Delhi National Capital Region. It is one of the major satellite citie ...

* Hisar *

Karnal Karnal () is a city located in the state of Haryana, India and is the administrative headquarters of Karnal District. The city is well connected as it lies on National Highway 01, in the south of the city lies the cities of Panipat and Sonipa ...

Kurukshetra Kurukshetra () is a city and administrative headquarters of Kurukshetra district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is also known as Dharmakshetra ("Realm of duty") and as the "Land of the Bhagavad Gita". Legends According to the Puranas ...

Rohtak Rohtak () is a city and the administrative headquarters of the Rohtak district in the Indian state of Haryana. It lies north-west of New Delhi and south of the state capital Chandigarh on NH 9 (old NH 10). Rohtak forms a part of the Nationa ...

Sirsa Sirsa is a city and a municipal council in Sirsa district in the westernmost region of the Indian state of Haryana, bordering Punjab and Rajasthan. It is located near the Thar Desert, 250 kilometres north-west of New Delhi and 260 kilometers s ...

Sonipat Sonipat is a planned industrial city and administrative headquarter in Sonipat district of Haryana state of India. It comes under the National Capital Region and is around from New Delhi. It lies 214 km (128 miles) southwest of Chandigar ...

; Defunct constituency *

* Mahendragarh ; List of Lok Sabha elections in Haryana.

Vidhan Sabha Elections

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

Local elections

Local self-government in India Local government in India is governmental jurisdiction below the level of the state. Local self-government means that residents in towns, villages and rural settlements are the people who elect local councils and their heads authorising them ...

refers to governmental jurisdictions below the level of the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

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. Since 1993, local government in India takes place in two very distinct forms. Urban localities, covered in the 74th amendment to the Constitution, 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. District Magistrates (in their capacity as District Election Officers), Electoral Registration Officers and Returning Officers are responsible for conducting

municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...

and panchayat raj elections at village, block and district level. 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. Haryana has at least 10

municipal corporations Municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally ow ...

(Gurugram, Faridabad, Ambala, Panchkula, Yamunanagar, Rohtak, Hisar, Panipat, Karnal and Sonepat), 18 municipal councils and 52

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

(c. Jan 2018).Municipal taxes will be sanctioned to the weak bodies of the state
, 11 January 2018. See the partial list (please help expand) of and .

Electoral demography

Voters

According to Election Commission of Haryana, Haryana had a population of 2,1145,000 and 25,352,000 in 2001 and 2011 respectively.Haryana electoral data in brief
Election Commission of Haryana, retrieved 17 October 2019. 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 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * '' 19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film * '' Dici ...

.Haryana Assembly Election 2019, Narnaul profile: Marking first win in 2014, BJP likely to fight hard to retain constituency
First Post, 17 October 2019. Psephologists, electoral data scientists, political analysts, Political forecasters,

opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of qu ...

s and media often analyse and discuss the electoral demography in terms of gender, age group,

caste A caste is a Essentialism, fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (en ...

electoral geography Electoral geography is the analysis of the methods, the behavior, and the results of elections in the context of geography, geographic space and using geographical techniques. Specifically, it is an examination of the dual interaction in whic ...

ethnic enclaves In sociology, an ethnic enclave is a geographic area with high ethnic concentration, characteristic cultural identity, and economic activity. The term is usually used to refer to either a residential area or a workspace with a high concentration ...

, swing of voters from/to a particular party or candidate. According to 2011 Census of India, there are 87.46%

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

s, 7.03%

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

s (mainly Meos), and 4.91%

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

s. In terms of native language, 87.31% use

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, 10.57% Punjabi, and 1.23%

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

. Haryana has 70% rural population who primarily speak Haryanvi dialect of Hindi, and related dialects, such as Bagri and Mewati.

Psephological regions

Haryana was made a separate state on

and

basis. 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 Ahirwal is a region spanning parts of southern Haryana, north-eastern Rajasthan, and South-Western Delhi The region was once a small principality based from the town of Rewari and controlled by members of the Ahir community from around the time ...

, Deshwal belt, GT Road belt, Jat belt,

Mewat Mewat (; ) is a historical and cultural region which encompasses parts of the modern-day states of Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh in northwestern India. Geography The loose boundaries of the Mewat region generally include parts of th ...

, Punjabi belt, and Ror belt.Haryana assembly elections: BJP counts on strategy
Times of India, 6 October 2019. Description of these psephological regions is as follows: * Bighot (now called Ahirwal) region in South Haryana, centered around Rewari, has 11 assembly segments spread over three Lok Sabha seats — Bhiwani-Mahendergarh (Mahendergarh district only),

and

only Kosli constituency. Ahirs are numerically founder higher here. * Jat belt is an area where Jats are dominant in politics and 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.Meet the muslims who consider themselves descendants of arjuna
Scroll.in, 30 March 2016.Mewati language

Glottolog ''Glottolog'' is an open-access online bibliographic database of the world's languages. In addition to listing linguistic materials ( grammars, articles, dictionaries) describing individual languages, the database also contains the most up-to-d ...

bibliographic database of the world's lesser-known languages. * Braj- Faridabad and Palwal. Gujjars and Jats are founded majorly here. * Deswali belt- Rohtak, Sonipat and Jhajjar i.e. dominanted by Jats. * Nardak region- Karnal, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar and Panipat. Dominanted by Rors, Sainis and Jats. * Bangar- Jind, Kaithal and Uklana- Narnaud region of Hisar i.e. dominanted by Jats. * Bagar- Sirsa, Fatehabad, Charkhi-Dadri, Bhiwani, western Hisar i.e. dominanted by Jats. * Puadh region- Ambala and Panchkula are Puadhi speaking areas dominanted by Sikhs and Hindus of various castes.

Electoral female disempowerment

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. 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. In 2024 Haryana Legislative Assembly election, 13 female candidates were elected to the legislative assembly, 7 from Congress, 5 from the BJP and an independent (who later gave support to the BJP government). Prominent female politicians of Haryana include the late

Sushma Swaraj Sushma Swaraj (''née'' Sharma; 14 February 1952 – 6 August 2019; ) was an Indian lawyer, politician and diplomat who served as the 5th Chief Minister of Delhi, and also the Minister of External Affairs of India in the first Narendra Modi ...

- former Union Foreign Minister, and Chandravati - former Governor who had defeated then Chief Minister Bansi Lal in 1972. ; Female contestants in Vidhan Sabha elections

References

* *

External links

Chief Electoral Officer
- official website, contains electoral rolls.
Geo-ethnic cultural electoral regions of Haryana
Times of India report.
Eco-Cultural regions of Haryana
from M.R. Madhava Menon's book ''"Criminal Justice India Series: Haryana"'' published by the

West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS or NUJS or NLU Kolkata) is a National Law Universities, National Law University (NLU) located in Bidhannagar, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. In 2023, it was ranked 4th among law co ...

, page 6. {{Haryana Haryana-related lists Politics of Haryana