Haryana Elections: Hisar and Julana among 11 high-stakes constituencies. Full list, details | Haryana Election News

But there is a lot going on in Haryana's political landscape beyond the two parties. Besides the external conflicts, the BJP is also grappling with an internal crisis after several of its key politicians quit the party because they were not allowed to field candidates in the elections. The Congress, meanwhile, seems very confident of winning the elections, but it remains to be seen whether the Aam Aadmi Party's plan to contest all 90 seats alone will dampen the Congress's prospects by splitting the vote share. For comparison, in the last general election, the AAP contested 46 seats but secured less than 1 percent of the vote. In this year's Lok Sabha elections, it secured about 3.5 percent of the vote, data on the Election Commission's website shows.

Tosham constituency: Dynastic politics between two cousins

2) From Tosham, Congress has nominated cricket official-turned-politician Anirudh Chaudhary. BJP, on the other hand, has nominated Shruti Choudhry as its opposing candidate, making this seat a key contest as both the candidates are cousins ​​and grandsons of late former Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal.

Ambala Cantt: Stronghold of leading BJP politician Anil Vij

3) Ambala Cantt is one of the key constituencies in Haryana where 71-year-old BJP politician Anil Vij has contested as MP six times. Vij was one of the most powerful ministers under former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and was heading the home ministry in Haryana when the Nuh powers took place in 2023. However, he has stayed away from the incumbent Nayab Singh Saini cabinet. Notably, Vij was not accompanied by any senior BJP politician while filing his nominations on Thursday.

The Congress has selected Parvinder Singh Pari for this seat. However, before the party can take on the BJP, it will have to sort out an internal dispute as Chitra Sarwara – the daughter of Nirmal Singh, another Congress candidate from Ambala – has decided to contest as an independent candidate. Sarwara had contested the seat as an independent candidate last time and lost to Vij by 20,000 votes.

Ladwa: Why did CM Nayab Saini leave Karnal for this seat?

4) Haryana Chief Minister Saini has been leading the state since March (after Khattar resigned to contest the Lok Sabha elections). He was elected to the Assembly in a by-election in Karnal, Khattar's stronghold. Saini is believed to have wanted to defend his Karnal seat in the election, but he was “reluctantly” fielded for Ladwa, which is considered the “safest” seat for the BJP. In the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 47.14 per cent of the votes in the Ladwa assembly part of Kurukshetra constituency. While this is lower than the 58.5 per cent it polled in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it is a significant improvement over the 32.7 per cent it received in the 2019 general election.

For this seat, Congress has nominated Mewa Singh, the incumbent MP who won the 2019 elections by a narrow margin of 12,637 votes.

Badli constituency: BJP puts trust in Jat leader Om Prakash Dhankar

5) For the Badli seat, the BJP has fielded Om Prakash Dhankar, a former BJP leader from Haryana who is a Jat leader and also served as a former state minister. Dhankar, who won this seat in 2014, lost to his Congress rival Kuldeep Vats in 2019, who will also contest for his seat in the upcoming elections.

Notably, Dhankar was replaced as the state chief minister last year by Saini, who was then the Lok Sabha MP for Kurukshetra.

Hodal seat: Congress MP from Haryana to contest from this reserved constituency

6) Hodal constituency is reserved for the casteless. The BJP has decided to drop its incumbent MP Jagdish Nayar and instead field Harinder Singh Ramrattan. Last time, Nayar had won this year by a margin of just around 3,300 votes. The outcome of this seat is crucial for the Congress party, which has given the ticket to its state president Udai Bhan, who has represented this seat four times.

Hisar: India's richest woman Savitri Jindal to run independently

7) Hisar is an important constituency in itself, but this time it has assumed even more importance as India's richest woman Savitri Jindal has decided to contest here as an independent candidate. This came after the BJP did not give the nomination to Jindal but re-nominated its sitting MP and state health minister Kamal Gupta. Notably, Jindal, who boasts a staggering net worth of $33 billion, quit the Congress party in March and joined the BJP. Her switch to the BJP came soon after her son, industrialist Naveen Jindal, also joined the party. Naveen is a BJP MP from Kurukshetra.

The Congress has nominated Ram Niwas Rara for this seat.

Kaithal: Randeep Surjewala's son Aditya makes his first election bid

8) Aditya, the son of Congress leader Randeep Surjewala, will contest the upcoming assembly elections from Kaithal, the seat his father had represented twice. Randeep had lost the seat in 2019 to BJP's Leela Ram Gurjar, who will try to defend his seat.

Julana constituency: Will Vinesh Phogat secure her entry into Haryana Legislative Assembly?

9) Julana, one of the most important constituencies this time, marks the beginning of Olympic wrestler Vinesh Phogat's political career. She will contest against BJP captain Yogesh Bairagi and AAP wrestler Kavita Devi. Phogat, who recently joined the Congress, is expected to consolidate the party's hold among farmers, youth and women.

Uchana: JJP leader Dushyant Chautala wants to consolidate his influence

10) Former Haryana Deputy Chief Minister and JJP leader Dushyant Chautala will contest for his Uchana seat in Jind to defend it against BJP's Devender Attri and Congress' Brijendra Singh. Singh, a former IAS and BJP defector, joined Congress in March this year. In the 2019 elections, Chautala defeated Prem Lata, the mother of Singh and his wife Birender Singh, who is a former Union minister.

Like his son, Birender Singh was a former Congressman who joined the BJP in 2014 and then defected to the Congress again.

Chautala's re-election in Uchana is of great significance for his party, whose influence is waning in Haryana. The JJP had emerged as a “kingmaker” in the 2019 assembly elections and helped the BJP form a government.

Ellenabad: Abhay Singh Chautala seeks re-election

11) Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) General Secretary Abhay Singh will contest the elections to retain his Ellenabad seat in Sirsa. Like the JJP, the INLD has also lost its influence in the political landscape of Haryana. The party was out of power in Haryana for 20 years and received a vote share of 1.74 per cent in the Lok Sabha elections. Here, the Congress has nominated Bharat Singh Beniwal and the BJP has given a ticket to Amir Chand Mehta, who is affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayam Sangh.

Chautala has represented this seat since 2010. Previously, his father OP Chautala held it.

Karnal: What will happen to Manohar Lal Khattar’s seat?

12) Karnal is the hot seat from where Khattar, a non-Jat politician, shaped the BJP's leadership in Haryana during his nearly 10-year tenure. This time, the saffron party has fielded Jagmohan Anand, a close confidant of Khattar, while the Congress has nominated Sumita Virk. Anand was Khattar's former media coordinator and former district president of Karnal.