Campaigning ends for Himachal urban body polls; voting on May 17

Shimla: Campaigning for elections to 51 urban local bodies in Himachal Pradesh, including the municipal corporations of Dharamshala, Solan, Mandi and Palampur, concluded on Friday.Voting will be conducted on May 17 from 7 am to 3 pm. Counting of votes for municipal councils and nagar panchayats will begin immediately after polling, and results will be declared by the evening. The results for all four municipal corporations will be declared on May 31.Apart from four municipal corporations, elections are being held for 25 municipal councils or nagar parishads and 22 nagar panchayats, spanning a total of 449 wards.The state election commission on Friday stated that it had completed preparations to ensure peaceful and fair elections across all urban local bodies. Liquor vends in areas falling under the urban bodies will remain closed till 3 pm on May 17 as part of the election regulations, it stated.More than 3.60 lakh people are eligible to cast their votes in the elections, including 1.79 lakh women and 14 ‘other' category voters. Among them, 1,808 voters in the 18-year age group will exercise their franchise for the first time, stated the state election commission.The commission has set up 589 polling stations across the state, while nearly 15,000 employees have been deployed on election duty.Polling will be held for 449 posts, including 229 municipal council seats and 156 nagar panchayat seats. Of these, 89 seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes, 12 for Scheduled Tribes and 195 for women, informed the state election commission.The commission has capped election expenditure at Rs 1 lakh for municipal corporation candidates, Rs 75,000 for nagar parishads and Rs 50,000 for nagar panchayats.Unlike the municipal corporation elections, the nagar parishad and nagar panchayat polls are not being held on party symbols.Voters can show any of the 16 identity cards, including Aadhaar card, PAN card, voter card, driving licence and ration card, as identity proof at the polling station, it added.MSID:: 131115062 413 |