Himachal Pradesh by-polls: CM, his family cast vote in Mandi

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur and his family cast their votes for the ongoing by-poll in the Mandi Parliamentary constituency on Saturday.

The chief minister and his family cast their votes at polling booth number 36 in Murhag in Mandi Parliamentary constituency.

The Mandi constituency recorded a 17.74 per cent voter turnout till 11 am.

The voter turnout for the other three assembly constituencies witnessing by-polls is 23.20 per cent.

Arki recorded 23 per cent, Fatehpur recorded 21.90 per cent and Jubbal-Kotkhai recorded 25.02 per cent voter turnout till 11 am.

The necessity to conduct a by-election for the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency and three assembly constituencies arose due to the deaths of sitting MP and MLAs on the respective seats.

As per the official release, there are six candidates from Mandi parliamentary constituency including Brigadier Kushal Chand Thakur of BJP, Pratibha Singh of Indian National Congress, Ambika Shyam of Rashtriya Lokniti Party, Munshi Ram Thakur of Himachal Jankranti Party and independent candidates Anil Kumar and Subhash Mohan Snehi.

BJP's Ratna Singh Pal, Congress Party's Sanjay and Independent Jeet Ram are candidates from Arki assembly constituency.

From the Fatehpur assembly constituency, a total of five candidates, Baldev Thakur of BJP, Bhawani Singh Pathania of Indian National Congress, Pankaj Kumar Darshi of Himachal Jankranti Party and independent candidates Dr Ashok Kumar Somal and Dr Rajan Sushant are in the fray.

The four candidates from the Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly constituency are BJP's Neelam Saraik, Indian National Congress's Rohit Thakur, independent candidates Chetan Singh Bragta and Suman Kadam.

Other than Himachal Pradesh, voting is underway in two more parliamentary seats and 27 other assembly constituencies in various states across the country today.

The results of these polls will be announced on November 2.

Out of 68 assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh, 43 are with the BJP whereas Congress has a hold of 19 seats. One seat is with CPI (M) and two seats have independent candidates as their representatives.

"The Commission has reviewed the situations related to the pandemic, flood, festivals, cold conditions in certain regions, feedback from concerned States/UT and taken into consideration all facts and circumstances and it has decided to hold bye-elections to fill vacancies in three Parliamentary Constituencies of UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu; Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh and 30 vacancies in Assembly Constituencies of various States," read the Election Commission of India's press note released on September 28.

( With inputs from ANI )

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