U’Khand goes to polls today
Over 8 million voters will decide fate of candidates in 70 assembly seats
DEHRADUN: The 70 assembly seats of Uttarakhand spread over 13 districts will go to the polls on Monday with over 8.1 million voters all set to decide the fate of 632 candidates, including 152 independents, in the fray.
Polling will begin at 8 am and conclude at 6 pm. Electioneering which was carried out aggressively by the political parties through virtual as well as physical rallies and door-to-door campaigns in the state came to an end on Saturday evening.
It will be the fifth assembly elections to be held in Uttarakhand after its creation in 2000.
Given the difficult hilly terrain of the state, polling parties have left for polling stations in higher reaches which take time to reach. Over 1400 polling parties left two days in advance while, 35 parties left three days in advance with some of them having to trek to reach the polling booths in remote hilly areas. Over 10,000 polling parties left for booths one day in advance.
According to the data from the office of chief electoral office (CEO), Uttarakhand, Uttarakhand has 81.72 lakh voters, including 42.3 lakh male and 39.3 lakh female voters. Maximum 22.2 lakh voters falling in the age bracket of 30-39 years while 1.6 lakh fall in the age group of 18-19 years, the firsttime voters. The voters also include 1056 people who are over 100 years old.
The voters above 80 years of age are 8172173 while those with any sort of disabilities are 71,588. The state also has 1556 voters aged above 100 years.
“After the last and final update in the state electoral roll on January 28, the total number of eligible voters for the upcoming elections stands at 8,172,173 voters including 4,238,890 males and 3,932,995 females,” Chief electoral officer of Uttarakhand, Sowjanya (uses only first name) said.
The hill state has 11,697 polling booths under 8624 polling stations. Of these 776 have been identified as critical polling stations while 1056 have been declared as vulnerable polling stations. As many as 173 areas have been declared as special trouble areas, Sowjanya told a press conference.
The polling booths also include 156 model booths and 101 Sakhi Polling Booths which will be completely managed by women. The state will also have six polling booths to be managed by specially abled electoral officers. Dhikala in Kotdwar constituency has the lowest number of voters -- 14 -- while Nagla Imarti in Khanpur constituency and Garhi Negi in Jaspur constituency have maximum -- 1248 -voters each.
Sowjanya said cash worth ₹4.26 crore and total 92,330 litre were seized by various agencies since the implementation of model code of conduct (MCC) amid the state assembly elections.
“Of the total cash seized, maximum ₹1.26 crore was seized in Dehradun district while maximum 26,506 litres of liquor was seized in US Nagar district among all the 13 districts in state,” she said..
Citing the data of the Commission, she also informed that the agencies seized “narcotics worth ₹5.33 crore and freebies worth over ₹29.97 lakh. A total of 1689 FIRs were also registered during the same period under violations of MCC and law and order offences during the same period.”
According to the data, there are total 94471 service voters who are employed in armed forces, central paramilitary forces or embassies. Among the total service voters, 91869 are males while 2602 are females.
The CEO also informed that, “There are total 11697 polling booths under 8624 polling stations in the state. The polling booths also include 156 model booths and 101 Sakhi Polling Booths which will be completely managed by women. The state will also have six polling booths to be managed by specially abled electoral officers.”
She also informed that the Commission has identified 693 critical polling stations and 1692 vulnerable polling stations.
On the total number of candidates contesting the polls, she said that there are total 632 candidates among which 152 are independent.
Also, 106 candidates have criminal antecedents. As per the directions of Supreme Court, the candidates with criminal antecedents had to publish and telecast details about their criminal cases thrice before the elections, but as per the Commission, of the total 106 such candidates, 55 didn’t followed the direction after which they have been served notices by the Commission.
Important candidates whose fate is to be decided in these polls include Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, his cabinet colleagues Satpal Maharaj, Subodh Uniyal, Arvind Pandey, Dhan Singh Rawat and Rekha Arya besides state BJP president Madan Kaushik.
Prominent faces from the Congress in the fray include former chief minister Harish Rawat, former minister Yashpal Arya, state Congress president
Ganesh Godiyal and Leader of Opposition in the fourth assembly Pritam Singh.
The BJP had won 57 out of a total of 70 seats in Uttarakhand in the last assembly polls limiting Congress to just 11. Two seats had gone to Independents.
Traditionally, the politics of Uttarakhand has been largely bi-polar with Congress and BJP governing the state alternately, but this time the AAP is also in the running fielding its candidates from all the 70 assembly constituencies in the state.
AAP has asked for votes accusing successive Congress and BJP governments in the state of not fulfilling the aspirations of people.