EC launches special campaign in Himachal Pradesh to boost voter turnout

The Election Commission has launched a special campaign in Himachal Pradesh to maximise voter turnout in 414 polling stations which registered less than 60 per cent voting in the last Lok Sabha polls.

Bypolls to six assembly seats that fell vacant after disqualification of Congress MLAs would be held simultaneously with four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh in the last phase on June 1.

The main focus of the campaign -- "Mission 414" -- is increasing the vote percentage in 414 identified polling stations which registered less than 60 percent voting in the last Lok Sabha polls, Chief Electoral Officer, Himachal Pradesh, Maneesh Garg told PTI on Monday.

Awareness campaigns and cultural events would be held besides making these 414 stations model polling stations.

Booth youth icons from first time voters would be roped in and special invitation cards made by children would be given to prospective voters, he said.

Letters had been sent to the respective Deputy Commissioners in February for increasing voter participation in low voter turnout polling stations and assembly constituencies, sources in the department said.

A similar initiative is underway for 22 assembly segments and is aimed at increasing the voter turnout to 72 percent in polling stations where the turnout was less than 70 percent in the last Lok Sabha elections.

The average voter turnout in Himachal Pradesh in 2019 was 72.42 percent.

"Basically it is an activity to reach out to the voters at the ground level and educate them about exercising their right to vote", Garg said, adding interventions in these segments would be on motivating employees, women and youth and carrying out a door-to-door outreach programme.

Another initiative is related to eight assembly constituencies where turnout of women voters was less than men.

'Mahila Preraks' (motivators) would be appointed in gram panchayats in these segments to motivate women to vote.

Besides appointing women icons, girls studying in educational institutes would be motivated by campus ambassadors to reach out to working women and housewives through anganwadi workers, self-help groups, Mahila Mandals, officials said.

As many as 7,990 polling stations, which are 267 more than the last Lok Sabha elections have been notified and 150 polling stations would be supervised exclusively by women election officers, 54 by youth and 29 by PwD (People with Disability).

Sharing details, Garg said people with more than 40 percent disability (PwD) and voters above the age of 85 would have facility of home voting. There are 56,320 PWD voters and 60,995 voters aged above 85 years in the state.

A total of 56,38,422 voters -- 28,79,200 men, 27,59,187 women, and 35 third gender persons are eligible to exercise their franchise for four Lok Sabha seats of Hamirpur, Kangra, Mandi, and Shimla (SC) seats in the seventh and last phase of polling, Garg said.

There are 1,38,918 first time voters while the number of voters in the age bracket of 20-29 is 10,40,756, which is over 20 percent of the total voters (56,38,422).

However, this number is expected to go up as the state election commission has received 8,654 advance applications of youth in the 17 plus age group attaining 18 years of age on April 1.

The expenditure limit of candidates for Lok Sabha polls would be Rs 95 lakh and assembly bypolls Rs 40 lakh.

Tashigang polling station in Lahaul and Spiti located at an altitude of 15,256 feet is the highest polling booth in the country.

Manola polling station in Dalhousie of Chamba district has the maximum number of 1,410 voters, while Kaa polling station in Kinnaur district has the lowest of 16 voters.