At 75.6%, Himachal Pradesh registers record voter turnout

shimla: Himachal Pradesh has registered a record polling of 75.6 per cent in the Saturday's voting for 68 assembly constituencies, breaking all previous records in the state, including the 75 per cent turnout in the 2017 polls.

The detailed statistics of the votes polled though EVMs and postal ballots were released by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Maneesh Garg here on Sunday. The high polling percentage has raised the hopes of the Congress to stage a comeback to power after five years while the BJP is confident about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's charisma working in the state, once again, to change the custom of rotating governments in the state.

"It's 100 per cent. We are forming the next government," said Vikramaditya Singh, MLA and son of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. Singh is contesting for the second time from Shimla (rural), earlier a constituency of his father.

As per the figures released Sunday evening, the poll percentage through EVMs is 74.6 per cent. Besides this, 1 per cent postal ballots had been received already taking the overall turnout to 75.6 per cent till now.

Nearly 2 per cent postal ballots are yet to be received. The highest polling percentage of 85.25 per cent was reported from Doon assembly constituency in Solan district and lowest of 62.53 per cent in Shimla (Urban). Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur's constituency Seraj received 82.10 per cent polling. Thakur is comfortably placed in his constituency for being elected for the sixth time.

A comparative analysis of the constituencies viz: Dharampur, Jaisinghpur, Shimla, Baijnath, Bhoranj, Solan, Kasumpati, Sarkaghat, Jaswan Pragpur, Hamirpur and Badsar revealed that out of 11 constituencies improved remarkably in higher voting turnout almost by 7 per cent.

The percentage point increase in Dharampur was 6.93 i.e from 63.6 per cent in 2017 to 70.54 per cent.

Similarly in Jaisinghpur, the percentage increased from 63.79 in 2017 to 65.31 per cent. In Bhoranj, it has increased from 65.04 to 68.55 per cent.

In Solan, it has improved from 66.45 to 66.84 per cent. The district of Solan polled 77.08 per cent votes while Bilaspur with its four constituencies polled 76.44 per cent votes showing highest polling of 82.10 per cent at Naina Devi.

Bilaspur is the district where Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone of Rs 1,470 crore AIIMS project which he inaugurated in October 2022. The BJP is expecting gains from the project but the presence of rebellion in the contest could be a problem. Two constituencies where the poll percentage dipped include Shimla(U) and Baijnath. Maneesh Garg said that the Election Commission of India, on their visit to the state, had also asked and guided the state to focus on low voter turnout ACs and thanked them for the same.

As per the CEO, there were a total 27,88, 925 male voters and 27,36, 306 females. The third gender voters were 38.

Out of these, the total percentage of male population who exercised their right to franchise was 72.4 per cent and that of females was 76.8 per cent. Besides, the third gender poll percentage was 68.4 per cent. During the elections, BJP banked on its double engine sarkar theme and gave a slogan --- Riwaaz Badlega while Congress star campaigner Priyank Gandhi Vadra told voters not to change the custom of alternating the government.