Young voters elated to cast votes for first time in Hamirpur bypoll

Dinesh Kanwar

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Hamirpur, July 10

The fate of the contesting candidates was sealed as 67.72 per cent voting was recorded in the Hamirpur byelection today. Young voters, especially girls, were enthusiastic to exercise their right to franchise for the first time to elect their representative for the Vidhan Sabha from the constituency.

The vote percentage this time witnessed a sharp dip as compared to 72.14 per cent recorded in the 2022 Vidhan Sabha elections. Ashish Sharma had won the seat as an Independent candidate in 2022 by defeating Pushpinder Verma of the Congress by a margin of 12,899 votes.

This time, there were 76,892 electors in the constituency and 52,073 of them (27,147 women, 24,927 men and one transgender) cast their votes.

The voting started at 94 polling booths in the constituency at 7 am and continued till 7.30 pm. People preferred to vote in the evening due to heat during the morning hours.

Amarjit Singh, District Returning Officer, said that the polling was peaceful. He added voting machines would be kept under tight security and CCTV camera surveillance.

The first-time voters were elated to participate in the festival of democracy, as they cast their votes at various polling stations in the town. Three friends — Kanchan, Kalpana and Shalu — came together to cast their votes at the Ukhali polling station. They were happy to have cast their ballots. Sonika, who cast her vote at the polling station in Bhagot village, said that she participated in the elections for the first time. She added that she would always cast her vote in the future elections as well.

Subham Jassal, a resident of Ukhali, said that he was curious to know about the polling process and the staff on election duty, who was very supportive, helped him understand it.

Abhishek Kumar, a residdent of Gauta village, was also happy to have cast his vote for the first time. Voters above 90 years of age also cast their ballots at various polling stations.