Women voters outnumber men in Himachal Pradesh assembly elections

SHIMLA

: With

women voters

in

Himachal Pradesh

outnumbering men in 48 assembly constituencies, political parties are trying to take credit. Of the 337 candidates in 68 assembly constituencies, only 19 were

women

and of the 37,21,667 votes polled, 18,11,126 were cast by men while 19,10,535 were cast by women.

While the BJP claims women supported them to expedite development, Congress leaders maintain that women voted against the BJP because of spiralling prices of

LPG

and imposition of GST. BJP’s chief ministerial candidate and opposition leader Prem Kumar Dhumal attributed increased participation of women in the electoral process to the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who encouraged them to vote in large numbers. He also said the increasing rate of crime against women under the Congress government motivated women to vote against the party.

“In the last five years under Congress rule, crime against women has increased in Himachal Pradesh. There was widespread resentment among women against Congress government after the Gudiya incident,” he said.

Prominent among 19 women candidates in the hill state are Asha Kumari from Dalhousie, Viplov Thakur from Dehra and Champa Thakur from Mandi from the Congress besides Reeta Dhiman from Indora (SC), Kamlesh Kumari from Bhoranj (SC), Vijay Jyoti Sen from Kasumpti, Shahshi Bala from Rohru (SC), Sarvin Chaudhary from Shahpur and Indu Goswami from Palampur from the BJP.

Women voters also outnumbered men in all 15 seats of Kangra district, which plays a vital role in government formation. It is believed that the party which wins maximum seats from Kangra district forms government in the state. There was a difference of 12.22% between men and women voters in Kangra district. Voting percentage of women was recorded at 78.63% against 66.41% recorded by men.

Senior Congress minister G S Bali said high polling percentage of women shows their resentment against the Centre over increased price of LPG and GST. “Price rise was the biggest issue for women in this election. The outburst of women has benefitted Congress,” he claimed, adding that women will play a decisive role in this election.