HP: Bypolls to 6 assembly seats to be held simultaneously with LS elections on June 1

Bypolls to six assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh will be held on June 1, along with the Lok Sabha polls. The seats became vacant after six rebel Congress MLAs were disqualified for defying party whip. The disqualified MLAs have filed an appeal in the Supreme Court. A total of 56,38,422 voters, including men, women, and third-gender individuals, will exercise their franchise in the four Lok Sabha seats. The state has 7,990 polling stations, with the highest polling station located in Himachal Pradesh's Lahaul and Spiti district. Various polling stations will be supervised by women, youth, and PwD election officers. The 2019 Lok Sabha polls also saw polling in the last phase due to snowbound areas.

Bypolls to six assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh, which are falling vacant after the disqualification of Congress MLAs, would be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls on June 1 in the state, according to officials.

The by-elections will be held for Dharamshala, Sujanpur, Lahaul and Spiti, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar, the state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Maneesh Garg told reporters here.

He said that the bypolls will be held on June 1 along with the general elections.

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

The Congress legislators are Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto.

They were among the nine MLAs, including three Independents, who had voted in favour of BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the recently held Rajya Sabha polls.

The disqualified MLAs have filed an appeal against their disqualification in the Supreme Court and the hearing is slated for March 18.

The CEO said as many as 56,38,422 voters, including 28,79,200 men, 27,59,187 women and 35 third-gender, would exercise their franchise in the four Lok Sabha seats -- Hamirpur, Kangra, Mandi and Shimla (SC) -- in the seventh and last phase of the general elections on June 1.

The notification for the polls would be issued on May 7, the last date of filing nomination papers is May 14, the scrutiny of papers is on May 15 and the last date of withdrawal of papers is May 16.

A total of 7,990 polling stations have been notified in the state of which 425 are critical. The highest polling station in the country is located at Tashigang at 15,256 feet in Himachal Pradesh's Lahaul and Spiti district. As many as 150 polling stations would be supervised by women election officers, 54 by youth and 29 by PwD (People with Disability) election officers.

The highest of 1,410 voters are in the Manola polling station in Dalhousie in Chamba district while the lowest number of 16 voters are in Ka in Kinnaur district. The number of first-time voters (18-19 years) is 1,38,918.

While in Fatehpur, polling teams would cross a distance of 5.5 km by boat to reach the Sat Kuthera polling station, in Baijnath, they would be air-dropped to conduct voting in the remote Bada Bhangal area. Both places are in Kangra district.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls also, polling was held in the last phase on May 19 as higher reaches and high-altitude tribal areas are snowbound during winters. At present, out of the four Lok sabha seats, three are with the BJP and one with the Congress.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)