INDIA VOTES 2024: 56.38L to cast vote in 4 LS, 6 Assembly constituencies

Shimla, March 16

A total of 56.38 lakh voters will cast their vote in the Lok Sabha elections for four seats and Assembly byelections for six segments to be held simultaneously on June 1.

“Our endeavour will be to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections in the four Lok Sabha seats and six Assembly segments of Dharamsala, Barsar, Lahaul-Spiti, Sunajpur, Gagret and Kutlehar on June 1,” said Maneesh Garg, Chief Electoral Officer. “The model code of conduct (MCC) has come into force immediately with the announcement of elections and will remain in force till June 4,” he added.

Garg said, “There are 56,38,422 voters comprising 28,79,200 men, 27,59,187 women and 35 third gender. There will be 1,38,918 first-time voters (75,001 male and 63,916 female) in the 18 to 19 years’ age group in these elections. The total number of voters with physical disability is 56,320, besides 60,995 voters above the age of 85 years.” He added that voters with more than 40 per cent disability could avail of the option to vote at home and 50,000 staff had been deployed on election duty.

He said, “There are 7,990 polling stations in Himachal with an equal number of EVMs. There are 231 polling stations in the state with more than 1,200 voters. The highest number of 1,410 voters are in Manola-1 in Dalhousie and the lowest 16 voters at Kaa in Manali, followed by 34 at Summer Hill in the Shimla segment.”

He added that there were 150 polling stations, which would be run by all women staff, while 29 would be managed by the staff with disability and 54 polling stations would be managed by the youth.

Garg said, “Tashigang in Lahaul and Spiti is the highest polling station in the world, located at a height of 15,256 feet, followed by Nako (12,010 feet), Chasak Bhatouri (11,302 feet) and Manali (10,000 feet). The highest number of voters are in the Sulah constituency.”

He added that of all 7,990 polling stations, at Ahalani in Bharmour, 183 voters would have to walk 13 km to cast their votes while at Chakki in Bhattiyat, 135 voters would have to walk for 13 km. Expenditure monitoring teams had been constituted to prevent the use of money and muscle power in the elections.

Garg said that 414 polling stations had been identified where voting percentage was below 60 per cent in the last elections so that voters could be encouraged to cast their vote. He added that efforts would be made to bridge the gap between the voting percentages in the Assembly and parliamentary elections.

The Sullah, Jawali and Jogindernagar Assembly constituencies have more than one lakh voters. While the Sullah constituency in Kangra district has the highest number of 1,01,125 voters, Lahaul-Spiti has the lowest number of 20,041 voters.