Candidate booked for threatening voter

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, June 1

The polling in Dharamsala election remained largely peaceful, barring an incident of Independent candidate Rakesh Chaudhary allegedly threatening a person.

A case under Section 506 of the IPC was registered against Rakesh Chaudhary on the complaint of Boby Goswami.

The complainant alleged that Chaudhary threatened him with dire consequences while he was standing on a road in Paddar village. The polling in the constituency remained at 71.3 per cent.

Heavy turnout was witnessed in the morning hours. The polling slowed down in the afternoon, but picked up again in the evening. Long queues of people were witnessed at 6 pm, when the polling ended.

Dharamsala Assembly constituency is witnessing a triangular contest between BJP’s Sudhir Sharma, Congress candidate Davinder Jaggi and Independent Rakesh Chaudhary.

The three candidates visited their polling booths in the constituency today to make last-minute appeals to voters.

The Assembly constituency had become a battle of prestige for Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Congress rebel and BJP candidate Sudhir Sharma.

During campaigning, the Chief Minister had termed the election of Dharamsala Assembly bypolls as a contest between ‘Dhan Bal’ (money power) and ‘Jan Bal’ (power of people).

The CM organised about eight to ten rallies in Dharamsala and also levelled serious allegations of corruption against Sudhir Sharma.

Sharma also played the victim card and accused the CM of being biased against Dharamsala segment and Kangra district.

He also levelled allegations of corruption against the Chief Minister during the campaign.