1.56L voters to decide fate of 12 candidates today
DHARAMSHALA: MORE than 1.56 lakh voters will decide the fate of 12 candidates from the two assembly segments—dharamshala and Pachhad, which are going to polls on Monday.
An official of the state election department said as many as 82,137 voters will cast their votes in the Dharamshala assembly constituency, while 74, 487 in the Pachhad assembly segment. Seven candidates are in the fray from Dharamshala and five from Pachhad. Total 202 polling booths, 113 in Pachhad and 89 in Dharamshala have been set up. An auxiliary booth has been set up in the Dharamshala constituency to facilitate 24 old age inmates. As many as 13 booths in Pachhad and 10 in Dharamshala have been identified as vulnerable polling stations.
Four polling stations have been categorised as critical in the Dharamshala segment. The election department has deployed 356 personnel in Dharamshala and 452 in Pachhad for smooth conduction of the bypolls.
The main contest in both the constituencies is likely to be between ruling BJP and opposition Congress. Possibility of a triangular contest cannot be ruled out. The BJP has fielded youth leader Vishal Nehria from Dharamshala and Reena Kashyap, a state party executive member from Pachhad.
Facing them are Congress’ Vijay Inder Karan and veteran leader Gangu Ram Musafir.
Five independents are also in the fray from Dharamshala, one of them Rakesh Chaudhary is a BJP rebel.
Pachhad has three independents in the fray. Dayal Pyari, a BJP rebel, among them is considered a strong candidate and have ability to dent the vote bank of both ruling and opposition Congress. The BJP had won both the seats in 2017 elections. Kishan Kapoor was elected from Dharamshala and Suresh Kashyap from Pachhad.