By: Vijay Kumar Verma ( Editor-ICN Group )
SHIMLA: Campaigning for the assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh came to an end at 5 pm today. Polling will be done on 9th November and accordingly the campaigning was stopped today.
Henceforth there won’t be any rallies and road shows which had kept the environment charged all these days. The candidates will however be permitted to undertake door to door campaigning.
There are 5025941 voters in the hill states many of whom live in difficult hilly terrains. The election commission has made elaborate arrangements to facilitate voters by setting up booths for villages with as little as 40 voters.
A total 7525 booths have been set up in the state. They expect a record 85 percent turnout in the polling. For the first time EVM with paper trails are being used in the elections.
There are 338 candidates in the fray from different parties including independents. But the number of women candidates is abysmally low at 19 only. Interestingly in the last elections there were 459 candidates including 34 women.
The largest number of 161 polling booths are in Theog constituency in Shimla district while the least 84 number booths have been set up in Dharamshala constituency of Kangra district.
Sharing the information Pushpender Rajput, Chief Election Officer told that there are 983 sensitive polling stations and 399 very sensitive polling stations.
