As many as 70.62% voters turned out to vote, according to the Voter Turnout app of the Election Commission (EC), as Himachal Pradesh’s all four Lok Sabha seats – Kangra , Shimla, Mandi, and Hamirpur – went to the polls in the last phase of national elections on Sunday.
The turnout on Sunday surpassed the highest ever polling percentage of 65.3% recoded in the state in 1998. A 64.5% turnout was recorded in 2014 elections.
Officials said the polling was peaceful and began briskly even as the weather was overcast. EVM glitches were reported from Shimla Nachan in Mandi and Theogh’s Narkanda.
As many as 45 candidates were in the fray. They included former Union minister Sukhram’s grandson, Ashray Sharma, of the Congress. Sharma was up against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ramswaroop, who is seeking re-election from Mandi. BJP leader Anurag Thakur was seeking his fourth term from Hamirpur.
Officials said the voting was slower in the hilly regions like Shimla, Chamba, Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti.
Shyam Saran Negi, 102, who has been voting since India’s first election after Independence, voted for the 17th time on Sunday. EC officials welcomed Negi at a polling booth in Kinnaur’s Kalpa village. Kinnaur’s deputy commissioner, Gopal Chand, escorted Negi to the polling booth inside a primary school, which was built in 1890.
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