Himachal assembly bypolls: Campaign ends for Pachhad, Dharamshala seats

SHIMLA: Campaign for by-elections on Pachhad (SC) and Dharamshala seats of Himachal Pradesh ended on Saturday evening. The polling would be held on these seats on Monday and counting of votes will take place on October 24 at Government Degree College Rajgarh for Pachhad assembly seat and at Prayas Bhawan, Government PG Degree College for Dharamshala.

The counting of votes will start at 8am.


For by-elections in Pachhad and Dharamshala, a total of 202 polling stations have been set up in both the assembly constituencies, out of which 113 are in Pachhad and 89 in Dharamshala, including one auxiliary polling station at Dari in Dharamshala.

About 82,137 voters will cast their votes in Dharamshala while 74,487 in Pachhad. The auxiliary polling station at Dari old-age home will facilitate 24 inmates in Dharamshala.

There are 13 polling stations in Pachhad and 10 polling stations in Dharamshala that have been identified as vulnerable, while 4 polling stations have been categorised as critical in Dharamshala.

In Dharamshala, 89 polling parties, consisting of 356 personnel have been deployed, while 113 polling parties, consisting of 452 personnel have been deployed in Pachhad for smooth voting.

Though, the main contest is likely to remain between ruling BJP and opposition Congress in Dharamshala and Pachhad, but the presence of rebels as independent candidates has led to the expectations of triangular contest on both the seats.

A spokesperson of Chief Electoral Office (CEO) informed that during Model Code of Conduct in Dharamshala and Pachhad, flying squads of police, income tax and excise departments jointly seized cash worth Rs 1,21,020 and 4,180 liters of liquor in Dharamshala and Pachhad and border areas of both the districts.

He said that heroine, charas, capsules, poppy husk, ganja, smack etc worth Rs 4,95,325 have also been seized till Saturday. He said total 17 complaints, out of which 12 from Sirmaur and five from Kangra district were received by CEO office and all the complaints have been disposed off.

For by-elections, a control room has been set up in CEO office from October 19 to 22. Deputy CEO Anil Kumar has been appointed as incharge of the control room. He will be assisted by 11 employees of the election department, who will receive the information about any reported incident or any other important information from both the assembly constituencies.