55 to 60 per cent polling in Uttarakhand Assembly election

Dehra Dun, Feb 21 (UNI) Nearly 55 to 60 per cent out of an electorate of nearly 60,00,000 exercised their franchise in the Uttarakhand Assembly election for 69 seats today.

A similar turnout was recorded for the Tehri Lok Sabha by poll today.

Barring a few incidents of clashes between workers of political parties and voters complaining that their names were missing from the voters list, no untoward incident was reported.

Voters of both plain and hill areas participated enthusiastically and even the weather was fine in most parts of the state throughout the day.

Women voters participated in large numbers. Long queues were seen even. Voters irrespective of geographical difficulties reached polling booths in large number in the hill areas. Malfunctioning of EVMs were also reported from various places. However immediate rectification kept polling going throughout the day.

Fake voting was also reported in Haldwani, People agitated against the Returning Officer at Chilinyali. Clashes between Samajwadi Party and Congress workers were reported from Roorkee area.

Two persons were arrested in Kiccha following clashes between Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress workers.

Three persons, on election duty, were found in an inebriated condition in Purola and Tehri and were suspended.

Report from Uttarkashi said the Returning Officer was found drunk. A report from Pauri said a possible leopard attack barred many voters from reaching polling booths.

Police resorted to mild lathicharge to quell the unrest following clashes between political party workers at Uddhamsingh Nagar District. An Independent candidate from Laldhang (Haridwar) was arrested for breach of Model Code of Conduct. Many voters had to return back without casting votes as their serial numbers in their voting I Card and voters list did not match or their names did not appear in the list despite having voters I Cards.

Earlier Uttarakhand Governor Sudarshan Agarwal cast his vote at Forest Research Institute, Kendriya Vidhyalaya Room No 1 at 0805 hrs. Chief Minister N D Tiwari too cast his vote at 1213 hrs after waiting for his turn for five minutes standing in a general queue declining his privilege to cast vote at specially made booth for VIPs.

Out of a total of 806 candidates, 785 candidates were left in the fray for 69 seats after Bajpur Assembly election was deferred due to the death of the Congress candidate from the constituency. There were a total of 21 candidates in the Bajpur Assembly constituency.

Counting will be held on February 27.

The last Assembly election in 2002. had recorded a 54.34 per cent polling. In the present Assembly, the Congress has 36 MLAs, BJP 19, BSP seven, UKD four and four independents.

UNI