Mountaineer Santosh Yadav urges high voter turnout in Seemanchal

KISHANGANJ: Noted mountaineer Santosh Yadav, visibly dissatisfied with the voter turnout in the assembly elections held in the three phases so far, has urged the electorate to come out in large numbers and exercise their franchise to create a ‘world record’ in the remaining last two phases of the assembly elections.
Santosh Yadav, the Indian mountaineer, who is the first woman in the world to climb Mount Everest twice - first in May 1992 and second time in 1993, said that the poll percentage has been encouraging but not very satisfying in view of the turnouts remaining below 58% so far.Like climbing the peak of Mount Everest, democracy can also be called the victor if the voter turnout reaches its peak to nearly cent-percent, added Yadav who has been made the icon of Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) in Bihar.
The noted mountaineer, who has been selected as the brand ambassador by the state election commission for motivating the electorate to exercise their franchise overwhelmingly in the assembly elections in Bihar, was in Kishanganj to inspire the voters of the Seemanchal areas that consists of 30 assembly segments where elections are scheduled on November 5 (last phase) and for other 55 assembly constituencies for fourth phase scheduled on November 1, 2015.
According to sources, the election commission, taking the past statistics of polling into consideration, had aimed at a target of increasing the poll percentage to 80% in the 2015 assembly polls in Bihar, but was not much satisfied as the poll percentage veered between 52-58% in the three phases of polling held so far.
World famous mountaineer Santosh Yadav, launching the awareness campaign in Kishanganj and Saharsa, said that the people of the the region should take the occasion as a bigger celebration than any other festival of theirs that can bring happiness in their lives besides become a tool of socio-economic changes. She urged the women and youths to participate in the polling in record numbers along with their elders and break the records as the region with the highest turnout across the globe.
In yet another event to increase voter turnout in the Seemanchal region, the divisional commissioner of Purnea Sudhir Kumar said the assembly segments under the Purnea division would set a new record in voter turnout. Kumar also launched several programme under SVEEP including a two-wheeler rally for awareness among the electorate.