SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh is set break its highest polling record this time. The hill state recorded more than 74 per cent voter turnout by 5pm on Thursday, with Election Commission officials expecting the final figure to cross the 75 per cent mark as voting was in progress in as many as 435 polling stations till late evening.
In 2003, the state had recorded 74.51 per cent turnout. Polling in 68 assembly constituencies began on a slow note due to cold, but picked up by the end of the day. In the remote Spiti sub-division of tribal Lahaul-Spiti district, 100 per cent voting was registered at Ki polling station while overall polling percentage remained at 80.43 per cent with a high number of women coming out to vote.
The highest polling percentage was reported approximately 82 per cent in Sirmour, while lowest 69.5 per cent in Hamirpur. Some of the districts that recorded high voting were Solan (77.44 per cent), Doon (88.95 per cent) and Nalagarh (84.27 per cent). In Kullu, around 80 per cent polling was recorded. Interestingly, chief ministerial candidates of both the BJP and the Congress — P K Dhumal and Virbhadra Singh — could not vote for themselves because they were not contesting from their home constituencies.
Centurion Shyam Saran Negi, the first voter of independent India, exercised his franchise one more time on Thursday. The district administration rolled out the red-carpet for him and provided Negi a vehicle.
In a first, Tibetans vote in state polls
Exiled from their ancestral land, Tibetans living in Dharamshala finally again got a second taste of Indian democracy on Thursday, 59 years after they arrived to live here due to "forced occupation" of the Tibetan Plateau by China. Tibetans voted for the first time in Indian democracy in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, but this was the first time the they participated in assembly polls.
In 2003, the state had recorded 74.51 per cent turnout. Polling in 68 assembly constituencies began on a slow note due to cold, but picked up by the end of the day. In the remote Spiti sub-division of tribal Lahaul-Spiti district, 100 per cent voting was registered at Ki polling station while overall polling percentage remained at 80.43 per cent with a high number of women coming out to vote.
The highest polling percentage was reported approximately 82 per cent in Sirmour, while lowest 69.5 per cent in Hamirpur. Some of the districts that recorded high voting were Solan (77.44 per cent), Doon (88.95 per cent) and Nalagarh (84.27 per cent). In Kullu, around 80 per cent polling was recorded. Interestingly, chief ministerial candidates of both the BJP and the Congress — P K Dhumal and Virbhadra Singh — could not vote for themselves because they were not contesting from their home constituencies.
Centurion Shyam Saran Negi, the first voter of independent India, exercised his franchise one more time on Thursday. The district administration rolled out the red-carpet for him and provided Negi a vehicle.
In a first, Tibetans vote in state polls
Exiled from their ancestral land, Tibetans living in Dharamshala finally again got a second taste of Indian democracy on Thursday, 59 years after they arrived to live here due to "forced occupation" of the Tibetan Plateau by China. Tibetans voted for the first time in Indian democracy in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, but this was the first time the they participated in assembly polls.
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