E-Paper
Votes in, Nalagarh leads with 78% turnout
Voting started at 7 am at the 315 polling stations and by 6 pm, the voter turnout percentages in Nalagarh, Hamirpur and Dehra stood at 78%, 67.7% and 65.42% respectively
Nalagarh assembly constituency recorded the highest 78% voter turnout as bypolls were on Wednesday held across three assembly constituencies to decide the fate of 13 candidates, including chief minister (CM) Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur.
Voting started at 7 am at the 315 polling stations and by 6 pm, the voter turnout percentages in Nalagarh, Hamirpur and Dehra stood at 78%, 67.7% and 65.42% respectively.
Sharing further details, chief electoral officer (CEO) Maneesh Garg said the final figures of voting percentage will be released only after the return of all the polling parties and scrutiny of documents.
The turnout, however, is likely to remain lower than the numbers recorded in the 2022 assembly polls across the three seats — when Nalagarh recorded 81.84% voter turnout, Hamirpur 72.15% and Dehra 71.39%.
More than 2.55 lakh voters were eligible to vote in the 315 polling stations set up in the three assembly segments. Results for all three seats will be announced on July 13.
Voting began on a slow note but gained momentum as the day progressed. At 9 am, voter turnout was recorded at 15.71%, 16.48%, and 15.70% in Hamirpur, Nalagarh, and Dehra, respectively. It jumped to 46.47% in Dehra, 51.59% in Nalagarh, and 47.05% in Hamirpur, by 1 pm..
The seats fell vacant after the three independent legislators — Hoshiyar Singh (Dehra), Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur) and KL Thakur (Nalagarh) — who had voted in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Rajya Sabha elections held on February 27, resigned from the House on March 22.
The stakes are high for chief minister Sukhu, who spearheaded the campaign for Congress candidate Kamlesh Thakur, who is contesting from Dehra.
Making her electoral debut, Thakur takes on two-time former Independent legislator Hoshiyar Singh. The latter has secured wins from the seat in the last two assembly elections, defeating candidates from both the Congress and the BJP.
In Hamirpur, the Congress has entrusted faith in Pushpinder Verma to take on BJP’s Ashish Sharma, who had defeated him by 12,000 votes in the 2022 assembly elections.
Nalagarh assembly constituency is witnessing a three-way contest, with Congress tasking Indian National Trade Union Congress’ (INTUC) state unit president Hardeep Singh Bawa with wresting the seat from KL Thakur, who is now contesting as the BJP pick. Harpreet Singh, son of three-time BJP MLA Harinarayan Saini, defied the party to contest the elections as an independent.
