HP gets 18,000 additional electors in special campaign

Enthusiasm apparently ran high among people who were eligible to vote but were left out from the electoral roll, as notwithstanding the holiday, 18,075 additional electors were added in a special one-day enrollment campaign on Sunday. The drive was carried out at 7,382 booths of all four parliamentary seats.

The politically-significant and the largest district Kangra got the highest number of additional voters at 39,977, while the tribal district of Lahaul and Spiti got only 75 electors. Chamba district got 1,008 additional electors.

Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) officer on special duty (OSD) Neeraj Sharma said. “The election commission had received complaints that in the past, some people were not allowed to cast their vote despite having an EPIC (Elector Photo Identity Card), because their names were not found in the electoral rolls,” he said, adding that the special camp was organised on March 9 in all polling stations, where booth-level officers (BLOs) had the electoral rolls.

Sharma said Mandi district got 2,749 electors, Kullu 800 and Kinnaur district got 372 additional electors during the special camp.

In the Shimla parliamentary constituency, Shimla district got 1,102 additional electors, Solan 1,219 and 1,917 people enrolled themselves in the voters' list in Sirmaur district. In Hamirpur district, 2,787 were enrolled, while Bilaspur and Una got 600 and 1,469 additional voters.

According to the statistics provided by the EC, as on January 6, there are more than 47.4 lakh electors in the state, including nearly 23 lakh women and 24 lakh men. Of the total, nearly 47 lakh (24 lakh men man and 23 lakh women) are general electors, while nearly 65,857 are service voters. The state has 62,133 first-time voters.