Heavy turnout in Himachal surpasses old records
The crucial Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha that has an impact in the national political arena witnessed high turnout with more than 75% electorate exercising their franchise in Sunday's poll that started on a sluggish note and picked up eventually. What you must know about HP polls
The crucial Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha that has an impact in the national political arena witnessed high turnout with more than 75% electorate exercising their franchise in Sunday's poll that started on a sluggish note and picked up eventually.
The overall turnout of 75% is considerably higher than the 2007 tally of 71.61%. The state witnessed its highest polling in 2003 when 74.51 electors turned out.
The counting for the polls will take place on December 20. Being a holiday, voting started slowly but picked up by afternoon. There are 459 candidates in fray for the 68 assembly constituencies and there are 46,08,359 voters in the state.
Apart from Congress and BJP, Himachal Lokhith party and the left, this for the first time that two other mainstream parties Trinamool Congress and Nationalist Congress party are contesting the elections.
The polls reflected that enthusiasm amongst voters particularly in hilly areas ran high while the lower regions of the state witnessed moderate polling. The areas of old Himachal including Shimla, Sirmour, Kullu, Chamba, Kinnaur and Mandi witnessed moderate to heavy polling. The polling percentage in lower region in comparison to the hills was low.
Kaa polling station in Kinnaur witnessed 100% polling .
What was unique about the polls this time was that the turnout was heavy in far flung and tribal areas. The voters in Kinnaur particularly high altitude the areas came out in good numbers to cast their ballots. Since the morning people made lines outside polling stations," said Rajiv Shankar deputy commissioner Kinnaur who is also the district returning officer for Kinnaur.
To keep the voters warm the district administration had made special arrangement of fire wood in at least 25 polling stations that are situated between the altitudes of 9,500 to 12,500 feet above sea level.