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Himachal bypolls: 15.36 lakh voters to decide the fate of 18 candidates on October 30
The Himachal bypolls are for the Mandi parliamentary constituency and Arki, Fatehpur and Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly segments where voters will exercise their franchise on October 30
Over 15.36 lakh voters will decide the fate of 18 candidates in the fray for the by-election to one parliamentary seat and three assembly constituencies in Himachal Pradesh on Saturday.
The polling will begin at 8am and will end at 6pm. Mandi parliamentary constituency and Arki, Fatehpur and Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly segments are going to the polls.
The Mandi parliamentary seat fell vacant after the death of incumbent MP Ram Swaroop Sharma in April this year. Three assembly segments also fell vacant due to the death of sitting legislators, one of them former six-term chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who represented the Arki assembly constituency.
Chief electoral officer C Palrasu said of the 1,53,36,280 registered voters in the four constituencies – 7,73,940 are men and 7,62,340 women.
He said the voting will be held at 2,774 polling booths. Mandi parliamentary constituency has a total 12,86,382 electors of whom 6,38,756 are female and 6,47,619 male.
A total of 2,365 polling booths have been set up in the 17 assembly constituencies in six districts, including Mandi, Kullu, Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti, Chamba and Shimla, that comprise the Mandi parliamentary seat.
A total of 11,500 officers and employees would be on poll duty in Mandi, along with 4,700 of the security personnel. The main contest in Mandi is between Congress’ Pratibha Singh, a two-term former MP and BJP’s Brigadier Khushal Thakur, who is making his election debut. The election holds much importance for being the home district of chief minister Jai Ram Thakur.
Among the three assembly segments, Arki has the highest, 91,884 voters – 45,401 of them are women and 46,483 are men. Around 132 booths have been set up in the Arki assembly segment and BJP’s Rattan Pal will slug it out against Congress’ Sanjay Awasthi in Arki.
Jubbal-Kotkhai is headed for a triangular contest between Congress’ Rohit Thakur, Neelam Saraik of BJP and Independent candidate Chetan Bragta. Jubbal-Kotkhai fell vacant due to the demise of sitting legislator Narinder Singh Bragta. A total of 70,792 voters will exercise their franchise across 135 polling booths. As many as 35,166 voters are male and 35,626 female.
Similarly, it will be a three-cornered contest in Fatehpur. The Congress has fielded Bhawani Singh Pathania, the son of former minister Sujan Singh Pathania, whose death necessitated the by-election. BJP has made Baldev Thakur its nominee, while former MP Rajan Sushant is contesting as an independent candidate.
Among the total 87,222 electors in Fatehpur, 44,665 are male and 42,528 female. As many as 141 polling booth have been set up in Fatehpur, of which 111 are main and 30 are auxiliary booths.
