shimla: A record 1,18,852 new voters have been registered in Himachal Pradesh marking an increase of two per cent in the electorates who will participate in the forthcoming elections in the hilly state.
The elections are expected to be announced in a week's time for two poll bound states of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. The Election Commission of India (ECI) team which has already visited the state has emphasised the need of highest participation of the voters in the state, which has witnessed a record polling of 75 per cent in 2017 elections. Most polling stations had as high as 78 percent polling.
State's Chief Electoral officer (CEO) Maneesh Garg, who has started a drive in collaboration with several voluntary groups and organisations for mass awareness, said this time the state will have 55,07,261 general voters, which includes 27,80,208 males, 27,27,016 females and 37 third gender electors.
The process of finalisation of electoral rolls till October 1, 2022, has been completed with the final publication of electoral rolls by the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) as per the schedule given by Election Commission of India.
He said that total 53,884,09 voters were registered in the state as per the draft publication on August 16, 2022 and after the revision of the photo electoral rolls, 1,63,925 new voters have been registered while the names of 45,073 voters have been deleted from the electoral rolls due to death, transfer, duplication of registration etc.
The CEO said that due to continuous and concerted efforts made by the Election Department under the UTSAV campaign, 69,781 new voters in the age group of 18-19 years were registered thereby increasing the percentage enrolment of 18-19 years old electors from 46 per cent to 75 per cent of the projected population during this period.
Garg said that taking into account the deletions, there has been a net increase of 1,18,852 voters, which accounts for 2.21 per cent increase.
He said that the list of service voters has also been completed and there were
67,532 service voters in the state till today.
He said that now there were 55,07,261 general voters in the state, which includes 27,80,208 male, 27,27,016 female
and 37 third gender electors. Also, the number of persons
with disability electors has increased to 56,001.