More women cast vote than men in Himachal Pradesh polls

According to the official figure released on Saturday, more women exercised their franchise than men in Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, which recorded its highest turnout at 74.61 per cent.

The figure stated that as many as 19,10,582 female voters exercised their franchise against 18,11,061 male voters in the state. However, the number of male voters in the hill state was about 74,200 more than the female ones.

The polling percentage of women was higher than men in 48 out of 68 Assembly constituencies.

In the biggest Kangra district, 4,61,278 women cast votes against 3,96,208 men, outnumbering them in all 15 Assembly seats. Similarly, in Mandi district, the number of votes polled by women was 2,96,898 against 2,71,725 by men.

Women voters outnumbered men in all the 14 constituencies in Hamirpur, Una and Bilaspur districts, polling 4,22,503 votes against 3,64,285 by men.

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The highest voting percentage of 74.61 was recorded on November 9 election, as compared to 73.51 per cent in 2012, 71.61 per cent in 2007-08 and 74.51 per cent in 2003.

The highest polling percentage was recorded in Doon and Nalagarh constituencies in Solan district, which went up to 88.95 per cent and 84.27 per cent. It was followed by Shillai 84.18 per cent, Seraj 83.20 per cent, Nahan 82.48 per cent and Sri Nainadevi 82.04 per cent.

There are four more constituencies which recorded more than 80 per cent of polling, which include Paonta (80.43 pc), Banjar (80.37 pc), Jubbal and Kotkhai (80.24 pc) and Balh (80.13 pc).

The most literate constituency Shimla (Urban) recorded the lowest polling percentage of 63.76 per cent, followed by Jaisinghpur 63.91 per cent, Baijnath 65.64 per cent, Bhoranj 65.84 per cent, Solan 66.65 per cent, Kusumpti 66.97 per cent, Sarkaghat 67.99 per cent and Hamirpur 69.11 per cent.

Poll results will be announced on December 18.

(With PTI inputs)

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