Shimla: Widespread snow and extreme cold climatic conditions in the higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh on Thursday has not impacted arrangements for the Assembly polls on Saturday, say election officials. Even the voters are gung-ho over their participation in record despite extreme climatic conditions.
Officials told a news agency that at a majority of 92 polling stations for a population of 31,538 in Lahaul-Spiti district -- out of the state's 7,881 booths -- there was widespread overnight snowfall. The polling booths in the district, a cold desert dotted by tiny helmets spread over the Himalayan peaks, adjoining Tibet, are scattered over rugged and inhospitable terrain where poll officials have to trek hours to reach there.
"The polling material has already reached all polling stations across the state, including the remotest stations," Neeraj Kumar, officer on special duty with the state election department, told a news agency in Shimla. He said the election staff at the far-off polling booths would reach by Friday, a day ahead of the election.
"Our election staff is highly motivated. So are the electorates. This time we will see a record polling of over 80 per cent," he added. In the 2017 Assembly polls, a record 75.57 per cent polling, highest in four decades, was experienced. At that time too the Congress and the BJP were locked in a straight contest.
Electorates of remote Kinnaur, Chamba and Lahaul-Spiti districts, part of the sprawling Mandi parliamentary constituency that covers almost two-thirds of the state, have a special place in the history of democracy in independent India as they were the first to exercise their franchise months ahead of the rest of the nation for the first general elections between December 1951 and February 1952.
This was done to ensure that snowfall did not deprive the tribals of the privilege of exercising their franchise. "Till early 1990's there were no proper roads. The ballot boxes were transported on horseback," said octogenarian Tashi Tenzing of Tholang village in the Lahaul Valley.
Gian Bodh, a school teacher, from Nako village in Kinnaur, said: "I still remember my grandfather trudging to reach the nearby polling station located some 20 km from our house. Now it is located in the village itself."
As per the records of the state election department, Shyam Saran Negi, 106, was the first voter of independent India who cast his vote at the polling booth in Kinnaur's Kalpa village on October 25, 1951. Just three days after casting his 34th vote for the forthcoming polls, he passed away at his native place on November 5.
Kinnaur district also boasts of the polling station with the least number of voters in the state. "The Kaa polling station near Yangthang has just six voters - the lowest in the state," chief electoral officer Maneesh Garg said. Octogenarian Durga Negi, a retired teacher from Tashigang, located at 15,256 feet in Spiti valley, said: "Earlier we used to walk miles to cast votes. Now the better road network has made the polling station accessible."
Located close to the India-China border, the polling station at Tashigang covers 52 voters of Tashigang and Gete villages. Himachal Pradesh's highest polling station in Chask Bhatori village in Bharmour assembly, located at an altitude of 4,500 metre, where the polling party has to trudge 14-km arduous journey to reach there.