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Polls in three tribal constituencies today

SHIMLA: The three tribal constituencies of Kinnaur, Bharmaur and Lahul-Spiti will go to polls on Wednesday in the first phase of elections in Himachal Pradesh. Because of massive snowfall expected in the winter months in the higher hill regions of the State, polling for these three seats had been advanced by a couple of months by the Election Commission of India.

It is almost after 15 years that the three high-altitude tribal constituencies are going for a virtually simultaneous poll with the rest of the Himachal Assembly constituencies. Otherwise the polls in these constituencies were always held after the declaration of the results elsewhere in the State and the tribals ended up voting mainly for the ruling party candidates.

There will be 1,27,785 voters in the three constituencies exercising their franchise on Wednesday at 298 polling booths.

According to the Chief Electoral Officer, Manisha Nanda, a polling station in Kinnaur has only 20 voters. Hikkam in Lahaul-Spiti at 1,50,00 feet is the highest polling station. On finishing the campaign for the first phase on Monday the State BJP in-charge Satpal Jain claimed that the party is much ahead of the Congress in other constituencies also.

He said workers’ conferences of around 50 mandals out of 68 had been held so far and the party would release the list of its candidates shortly. “We would come out with the final list of party candidates on the November 23 and soon release the party manifesto also,” he said at a press conference here. He said the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would be the star campaigner for the party.

Or else party president Rajnath Singh, who is launching the campaign on November 18 at a youth rally in Mandi, would lead the crusade in the hill State.

Navjot Singh Sidhu, who addressed two rallies in Kinnaur and Lahul-Spiti on Monday, would also campaign exhaustively in the State, he added. Mr. Jain also sought an apology from Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh “who is repeatedly criticising the constitutionally valid Election Commission of India”.

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Polls in three tribal constituencies today

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