CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and his predecessor Manohar Lal Khattar were among the early voters who cast their votes on Saturday in their respective polling stations.
Polling started at 7 a.m. across all the 10 Lok Sabha seats of the state amid tight security in the sixth and penultimate phase of the general elections. It will continue till 6 p.m.
While Saini cast his vote in his hometown Naraingarh in Ambala district along with his wife after paying obeisance at a Sikh shrine, Khattar exercised his franchise in Karnal city.
Interestingly both are in the fray.
Two-time Chief Minister Khattar is contesting his first Lok Sabha election from Karnal, while Saini is in the fray for the by-poll of the Karnal Assembly seat.
Besides the Lok Sabha polls for all 10 seats, there is a by-poll for the lone Assembly seat -- vacated by Khattar -- where Chief Minister Saini, the outgoing Lok Sabha MP from Kurukshetra, is among the nine candidates in the fray. Saini had replaced Khattar as the Chief Minister in March.
Describing the polls as the festival of elections and the pride of the nation, Khattar appealed to the voters to exercise their right to vote and make this great festival of democracy a success by creating a new record of voting.
“First of all, vote yourself and motivate everyone in your village, town, home and neighbourhood to vote 100 per cent, ” he wrote on X.