Over 57 lakh voters to decide fate of 37 candidates in Lok Sabha poll in Himachal Pradesh

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, May 31

As many as 57.11 lakh voters will cast their votes for four seats in the Lok Sabha elections and six Vidhan Sabha byelections to be held simultaneously tomorrow. All arrangements are in place to ensure peaceful and successful elections.

Poll-o-meter

57,11,969 Total voters

29,13,050 Male

27,98,850 Female

Third Gender: 35

7,992 Total polling stations

369 Critical booths

6 Vulnerable booths

All six vulnerable booths are in Solan district

The voters will decide the fate of senior leaders like Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur, former Union Minister Anand Sharma, Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut and Public Works Department Minister Vikramaditya Singh, who are contesting the Lok Sabha elections. The byelections to six Assembly seats are a virtual fight for political survival for the six former Congress MLAs, who are now the BJP candidates from their constituencies.

A total of 37 candidates are in the fray for the four Lok Sabha seats of Mandi, Kangra, Hamirpur and Shimla (reserved) while 25 candidates are contesting the six Assembly byelections in Dharamsala (Kangra), Gagret and Kutlehar (Una), Sujanpur and Barsar (Hamirpur) and Lahaul and Spiti constituencies. Polling will take place from 7 am to 6 pm. The Congress, BJP and the BSP have fielded their candidates on all four Lok Sabha seats.

A total of 57,11,969 voters, including 66,390 service voters, will cast their votes. There are 29,13,050 male voters, 27,98,850 women voters and 35 third genders. There are a total of 7,992 polling stations in the state, including those located in remote areas.

As many as 369 polling booths have been declared as critical and six as vulnerable. Incidentally, all six vulnerable booths are in Solan district. There are 118 critical polling stations in Kangra, 58 in Sirmaur, 51 in Una, 45 in Solan, 20 in Chamba, 17 in Hamirpur, 16 each in Mandi and Shimla, seven in Kinnaur, three in Kullu and two in Lahaul and Spiti.

The number of model polling stations in the state is 279 while 44 booths have been declared as green to give a message on environment protection. The highest polling booth in the world has been set up at Tashigang at a height of 15,526 feet.

As many as 1,941 of 2,139 complaints received since March 16 were disposed of.