Except Kasauli, decline in polling across Solan district

Ambika Sharma

Solan, June 2

Barring the Kasauli Assembly segment, which is the home turf of Congress’ Shimla Lok Sabha candidate Vinod Sultanpuri, other four Assembly segments registered a lower voter turnout in Solan district yesterday compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress holds four of the five seats in Solan, while one seat is represented by Independent MLA KL Thakur, who has extended support to the BJP. The decline in the voter turnout could hit the prospects of BJP’s sitting MLA Suresh Kashyap, who was vying to retain the seat for the second consecutive time. It also remains to be seen if it would mar the prospects of Sultanpuri who expects to register a bigger lead from his home district as he is the sitting MLA from Kasauli.

The Arki Assembly segment, which had seen 73.15 per cent polling in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, registered a five per cent decline with barely 68.11 per cent voters exercising their right to vote, becoming the lowest in the district.

The BJP was a divided house in Arki segment with various leaders failing to put up a spirited fight. Arki is represented by Congress MLA Sanjay Awasthi who holds the portfolio of the Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS).

In the Nalagarh Assembly segment, the decline in voter turnover was seven per cent as 78.70 per cent voters had cast their votes in 2019 as against 71.73 per cent this time. This segment had recorded the highest voter turnout in 2019. The lower turnout will hit the BJP as it had secured a sizable lead in 2019.

A decline of six per cent was visible in the Doon Assembly segment where 73.92 per cent voters turned in this time as against 79.54 per cent, who had cast their votes in 2019. The Doon Assembly segment is the home turf of CPS Ram Kumar Chaudhary.

In the Solan Assembly segment, barely 68.59 per cent voters cast their votes and it was the second lowest to the Arki Assembly segment.

In 2019, 70.15 per cent voters had participated in the polls. Solan is represented by the Health and Family Welfare Minister DR Shandil. Both the Congress and the BJP failed to put up a spirited fight in this segment as a very less aggressive campaigning was done in this segment.

Kasauli remained exceptional where an increase of more than one per cent was recorded in the voting score as 76.14 per cent voters turned up to vote as against 75.99 per cent in 2019. This was despite the fact that the Congress could not setup up proper booths outside the polling stations at many places.

At Sanawar polling station, posters of Sultanpuri were hung on a car where a few party functionaries had gathered to give it the appearance of a booth as against a well-set up tented booth of the BJP metres away. It remains to be seen how much Sultanpuri would gain from his home turf as gains made here would be significant.