Himachal: Bypoll in 6 assembly seats on Jun 1

Shimla: Bypolls will be held in six Himachal Pradesh assembly seats, which fell vacant after disqualification of rebel Congress MLAs, on June 1, Chief Electoral Officer Maneesh Garg said on Saturday.

The assembly by-elections will be held in Dharamshala, Sujanpur, Lahaul and Spiti, Barsar, Gagret, and Kutlehar constituencies.

These seats had become vacant after the six rebel Congress MLAs who had abstained from voting on cut motion and finance bill (Budget) in the assembly were disqualified for defying a party whip to be present in Vidhan Sabha and vote in favour of the government.

As many as 56,38,422 voters – 28,79,200 male, 27,59,187 female, and 35 third gender persons – would exercise their franchise for four Lok Sabha seats of Hamirpur, Kangra, Mandi, and Shimla (SC) seats in the 7th and last phase of polling, Garg said.

The bypolls for the six seats will be held along with polling on four LS seats in the last phase.

As per the election schedule for Himachal Pradesh, the notification would be issued on May 7 and the last date of filing of nomination is May 14.

May 15 has been set as the date for the nominations' scrutiny, while the last date of withdrawal of nominations is May 16.

There are 7,990 polling stations in the state, of which 425 are considered "critical".

The state has the highest polling station in the country, located at 15,256 feet in Tashigang of Lahaul and Spiti.

Manola polling station in Dalhousie of Chamba district boasts the maximum number of voters at 1,410, while the lowest, 16, are registered at Ka polling station in KInnaur district.

Polling teams would cross a distance of 5.5 km on boat to reach Sat Kuthera polling station in Fatehpur.

Some others would be air dropped in the remote Bara Bangal area of Baijnath. Both places are in Kangra district.