Bad weather may hit Himachal polling: poll panel

Dec 13, 2007, 14:00 GMT

Shimla, Dec 13 (IANS) A spell of snowfall, rain and extreme cold conditions witnessed in Himachal Pradesh could mar polling in the second phase of the assembly elections Dec 19, Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswamy said here Thursday.

'Polling may be affected in at least 576 polling stations spread over six districts of the state if it snows on Dec 19,' he said.

'These polling stations are spread in the districts of Shimla (245 polling stations), Sirmaur (89), Chamba (83), Kullu (28), Mandi (123) and Kangra (8),' he said.

The hill state has been experiencing inclement weather for the past four days, putting a question mark over the second and last phase of elections to the 65 assembly seats.

Asked if it was a poor decision to hold elections in the peak of winter in the hill state, Gopalaswamy admitted: 'It would have been better if polling in the entire state had ended before the end of November.'

Political parties, particularly the ruling Congress, have been critical of the Election Commission's move to hold elections in mid-winter.

It was precisely the weather factor that led to early polling, on Nov 14, in three hilly constituencies Bharmaur, Lahaul & Spiti and Kinnaur.

Snowfall in many places, including this capital city, has affected campaigning of the parties this week.

Campaigning was affected for the fourth consecutive day Thursday across the state with intermittent snow, sleet in the higher hills and rain in the lower hills.

While candidates and their supporters continued to brave the icy winds, most people preferred to stay indoors.

The Chief Election Commissioner earlier in the day reviewed the polling arrangements with top state officials.

He said action was being taken against dual registration of voters in some cases detected in the Jubbal and Kotkhahi seat where some under-age people had registered themselves twice by submitting false documents to poll officials.

According to Chief Electoral Officer Manisha Nanda, there are 4.4 million voters in the state for the second phase of polling.

There are 324 candidates in the fray. The Arki assembly seat in Solan district has the largest number of candidates at nine.

While the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have fielded candidates in all seats, the Lok Janshakti Party is contesting 38 seats and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) seven.

According to Nanda, there are 5,934 polling stations for the second phase.

Counting will take place Dec 28.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service